IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v422y2003i6930d10.1038_nature01503.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An electronic Mach–Zehnder interferometer

Author

Listed:
  • Yang Ji

    (Weizmann Institute of Science)

  • Yunchul Chung

    (Weizmann Institute of Science)

  • D. Sprinzak

    (Weizmann Institute of Science)

  • M. Heiblum

    (Weizmann Institute of Science)

  • D. Mahalu

    (Weizmann Institute of Science)

  • Hadas Shtrikman

    (Weizmann Institute of Science)

Abstract

Double-slit electron interferometers fabricated in high mobility two-dimensional electron gases are powerful tools for studying coherent wave-like phenomena in mesoscopic systems1,2,3,4,5,6. However, they suffer from low visibility of the interference patterns due to the many channels present in each slit, and from poor sensitivity to small currents due to their open geometry3,4,5,7. Moreover, these interferometers do not function in high magnetic fields—such as those required to enter the quantum Hall effect regime8—as the field destroys the symmetry between left and right slits. Here we report the fabrication and operation of a single-channel, two-path electron interferometer that functions in a high magnetic field. This device is the first electronic analogue of the optical Mach–Zehnder interferometer9, and opens the way to measuring interference of quasiparticles with fractional charges. On the basis of measurements of single edge state and closed geometry transport in the quantum Hall effect regime, we find that the interferometer is highly sensitive and exhibits very high visibility (62%). However, the interference pattern decays precipitously with increasing electron temperature or energy. Although the origin of this dephasing is unclear, we show, via shot-noise measurements, that it is not a decoherence process that results from inelastic scattering events.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang Ji & Yunchul Chung & D. Sprinzak & M. Heiblum & D. Mahalu & Hadas Shtrikman, 2003. "An electronic Mach–Zehnder interferometer," Nature, Nature, vol. 422(6930), pages 415-418, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:422:y:2003:i:6930:d:10.1038_nature01503
    DOI: 10.1038/nature01503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01503
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature01503?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Werkmeister & James R. Ehrets & Yuval Ronen & Marie E. Wesson & Danial Najafabadi & Zezhu Wei & Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi & D. E. Feldman & Bertrand I. Halperin & Amir Yacoby & Philip , 2024. "Strongly coupled edge states in a graphene quantum Hall interferometer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Ravi Kumar & Saurabh Kumar Srivastav & Christian Spånslätt & K. Watanabe & T. Taniguchi & Yuval Gefen & Alexander D. Mirlin & Anindya Das, 2022. "Observation of ballistic upstream modes at fractional quantum Hall edges of graphene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    3. Hwanchul Jung & Dongsung T. Park & Seokyeong Lee & Uhjin Kim & Chanuk Yang & Jehyun Kim & V. Umansky & Dohun Kim & H.-S. Sim & Yunchul Chung & Hyoungsoon Choi & Hyung Kook Choi, 2023. "Observation of electronic modes in open cavity resonator," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. I. Taktak & M. Kapfer & J. Nath & P. Roulleau & M. Acciai & J. Splettstoesser & I. Farrer & D. A. Ritchie & D. C. Glattli, 2022. "Two-particle time-domain interferometry in the fractional quantum Hall effect regime," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:422:y:2003:i:6930:d:10.1038_nature01503. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.