# Persistent current in a mesoscopic ring with diffuse surface scattering

## Abstract

The persistent current in a clean mesoscopic ring with ballistic electron motion is calculated. The particle dynamics inside a ring is assumed to be chaotic due to scattering at the surface irregularities of atomic size. This allows one to use the so-called “ballistic” supersymmetric $`\sigma `$ model for calculation of the two-level correlation function in the presence of a nonzero magnetic flux.

PACS numbers: 73.23.Ad, 05.45.Mt, 73.23.-b

Since the pioneering work of Büttiker, Imry and Landauer , persistent currents in small metallic rings have been a subject of great theoretical and experimental interest. While earlier observations were made on disordered samples with diffusive electron dynamics , more recent experiments measured the persistent currents in high mobility semiconductor heterostructures with the elastic mean free path $`l1.3L`$ ($`L`$ is the system size) . The semiclassical electron dynamics in such clean samples is ballistic and can be either regular (integrable) or chaotic. The former possibility seems to be rather exceptional, since any deviation of the sample shape from a perfect annulus, however small, breaks down the integrability of a system. The purpose of this paper is to calculate the persistent current in a ballistic ring, in which a bulk disorder is absent but the electron dynamics is nevertheless chaotic due to the multiple surface scattering. The electron-electron interaction is neglected.

According to Ref. , the average current for a canonical ensemble (i.e., for a fixed number of electrons in a sample) is given by the following formula:

$$I=\frac{s}{2\mathrm{\Delta }}\frac{}{\mathrm{\Phi }}𝑑ϵ_1𝑑ϵ_2n(ϵ_1)n(ϵ_2)K(ϵ_1,ϵ_2;\mathrm{\Phi })$$
(1)   
(we use the units in which $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$). Here $`s`$ is the spin degeneracy, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=(\rho _0V)^1`$ is the mean level spacing in the system, $`\rho _0`$ is the average density of states, $`V`$ is the system volume, $`n(ϵ)`$ is the Fermi distribution function, $`K(ϵ_1,ϵ_2;\mathrm{\Phi })`$ is the dimensionless two-level correlation function at a nonzero magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, which depends on the energy difference $`ϵ_2ϵ_1=\omega `$:

$$K(\omega ,\mathrm{\Phi })=\frac{1}{\rho _0^2}\delta \rho (E+\omega ,\mathrm{\Phi })\delta \rho (E,\mathrm{\Phi })$$
(2)   
($`\delta \rho (E,\mathrm{\Phi })=\rho (E,\mathrm{\Phi })\rho _0`$ is the deviation of the one-particle density of states from its average value). We restrict our analysis to the limit of $`T\mathrm{\Delta }`$, where the formula (1) is valid.

We assume that the sample has the shape of a planar coaxial ring with outer and inner radii $`R_1`$ and $`R_2`$, respectively, threaded by a solenoid carrying a flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ (see Fig. 1). We consider here only narrow rings with $`d=R_1R_2R=(R_1+R_2)/2`$. For this geometry, the number of transverse channels $`N=mv_\mathrm{F}d/2\pi `$, the average density of states $`\rho _0=m/2\pi `$ and the mean level spacing $`\mathrm{\Delta }=(mRd)^1`$.

In order to calculate the two-level correlation function (2), we use the supersymmetric $`\sigma `$ model, which has become a powerful tool in the theory of disordered metals  and has been adapted to the description of the classically chaotic systems as well . Here it is appropriate to emphasize that in a clean ring, where a natural ensemble is absent but the dynamics is classically chaotic, the averaging in Eq. (2) must be performed over a wide energy band , in contrast to the case of a disordered ring, where the angular brackets in Eq. (2) imply averaging over different realizations of the random potential. If the shape of a sample is highly symmetric and its surface is smooth on the atomic scale, then the specular boundary conditions commonly used in chaotic billiards give rise to integrability of the system, and the whole approach based on using the supersymmetric $`\sigma `$ model fails (this case was studied in Ref. , using the semiclassical trace formulas). In order to make the particle dynamics chaotic, one can, for instance, slightly deform the shape of the billiard to break its perfect rotational symmetry . However, in this approach, the level correlations can be calculated only numerically. Another way to achieve the chaotic regime, at the same time preserving the macroscopic symmetry of a sample, is to assume that each act of the surface reflection is stochastic itself, i.e., the incident particle gets reflected in some random direction at the surface. This model is commonly referred to as the diffuse reflection and applies to the surfaces which are rough on the atomic scale, which seems to be quite reasonable physical assumption . After several reflections at the walls, the dynamics of an electron becomes fully chaotic.

At $`\omega \mathrm{\Delta }`$, the two-level correlation function (2) can be calculated perturbatively, using the “ballistic” version of the supersymmetric $`\sigma `$ model generalized to the presence of a nonzero magnetic flux :

$$K(\omega ,\mathrm{\Phi })=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }^2}{2\pi ^2}\mathrm{Re}\underset{i}{}\frac{1}{[i\omega \lambda _i(\mathrm{\Phi })]^2}$$
(3)   
where $`\lambda _i(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ are the eigenvalues of the (Cooperon) Liouville operator

$$=v_\mathrm{F}𝐧(_𝐫2ie𝐀)$$
(4)   
inside the Aharonov-Bohm billiard ($`𝐧`$ is the direction of momentum). The region of small frequencies $`\omega \mathrm{\Delta }`$, where the perturbative approach fails and the level correlations are described by the universal formulas of the random matrix theory , lies beyond the limits of applicability of the thermodynamic approach to the description of persistent currents. The expression (3) is a direct analog of the Altshuler-Shklovskii spectral function for diffusive systems . Rewriting the Fermi distribution functions in Eq. (1) as Matsubara sums and integrating over energies, we end up with the following expression:

$$I=\frac{2\pi s}{\mathrm{\Delta }}T\underset{n>0}{}\omega _n\frac{K(i\omega _n,\mathrm{\Phi })}{\mathrm{\Phi }},$$
(5)   
where $`\omega _n=2\pi nT`$. The sum over $`n`$ on the right-hand side is convergent due to the presence of the differentiation over flux.

The spectrum of the Liouville operator is determined by the eigenvalue equation

$$v_\mathrm{F}𝐧(_𝐫2ie𝐀)f(𝐫,𝐧)=\lambda f(𝐫,𝐧),$$
(6)   
with some boundary conditions at the surfaces of the ring. Due to the similarity of Eq. (6) to the Boltzmann kinetic equation, $`f(𝐫,𝐧)`$ having the meaning of the classical distribution function, the boundary conditions at the diffusely reflecting surface $`𝐫=𝐑`$ with the outward normal $`𝐍`$ can be imposed by analogy with the classical kinetic theory. The distribution function of reflected particles can be represented as $`f(𝐑,𝐧)=pf_0(𝐑)+(1p)f(𝐑,\overline{𝐧})`$ , where $`0p1`$ is “the diffuseness coefficient”, $`f_0`$ is an isotropic distribution function, and $`\overline{𝐧}=𝐧2(\mathrm{𝐧𝐍})𝐍`$ is the direction of specular reflection. In this paper, we consider an isotropic diffuse scattering with $`p=1`$, corresponding to the limit of “strong chaos” (for the discussion of applicability of this model to real experimental samples, see below) and the boundary condition, which follows from the particle number conservation, takes the form

$$\frac{1}{\pi }f(𝐑_i,𝐧)|_{(\mathrm{𝐧𝐍}_i)<0}=_{(𝐧^{}𝐍_i)>0}𝑑𝐧^{}(𝐧^{}𝐍_i)f(𝐑_i,𝐧^{}).$$
(7)   
Here $`𝑑𝐧=𝑑\varphi /2\pi `$ ($`\varphi `$ is the angle between the direction of momentum of incident particles and the outward normal $`𝐍`$), and $`i=1,2`$ correspond to the outer and inner surfaces of the ring. The distribution function of reflected particles on the left-hand side of Eq. (7) does not depend on $`𝐧`$. A similar approach was used in Ref.  for calculation of the corrections to the universal level correlations in a two-dimensional disk without magnetic flux.

Since the magnetic field is absent inside the ring, the trajectory of a particle between collisions with the walls is a straight line. Equation (6) can be solved along the trajectory

$$f(l)=f(0)\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\lambda }{v_\mathrm{F}}l\right)\mathrm{exp}\left(2ie_0^l𝐀𝑑𝐥\right).$$
(8)   
This expression allows one to establish a relation between $`f(𝐑_1,𝐧)|_{(\mathrm{𝐧𝐍}_1)>0}`$ and $`f(𝐑_1,𝐧)|_{(\mathrm{𝐧𝐍}_1)<0}`$ or $`f(𝐑_2,𝐧)|_{(\mathrm{𝐧𝐍}_2)<0}`$, and also between $`f(𝐑_2,𝐧)|_{(\mathrm{𝐧𝐍}_2)>0}`$ and $`f(𝐑_1,𝐧)|_{(\mathrm{𝐧𝐍}_1)<0}`$ in Eq. (7) and obtain a rather cumbersome algebraic equation for the eigenvalues of the Liouville operator in a ring of arbitrary width. Fortunately, in the case of a narrow ring, the problem can be considerably simplified, since we can replace our annular billiard by a strip of length $`L=2\pi R`$ and width $`d`$ such that $`\delta =d/L1`$ (see Fig. 2). In addition, the vector potential can be put constant inside the sample: $`A_\theta =\mathrm{\Phi }/L`$ ($`\theta `$ is the polar angle in real space). This simplification implies that the contribution from the trajectories connecting two points at the outer wall is neglected (it can be checked that this contribution is indeed small at $`\delta 1`$). However, there is an important property of the annular geometry which should be taken into account, namely the finiteness of the flight length $`l(\varphi )`$ between successive collisions with the walls ($`lL`$). This feature can be restored in the strip billiard if to assume that there exists the maximum scattering angle $`\varphi _0`$ such that $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _0=R_2/R_112\pi \delta `$.

Let $`x=R\theta `$, then we obtain, from Eq. (8) and Fig. 2:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}& & f_{1,>}(x,\varphi )=f_{2,<}(xd\mathrm{tan}\varphi )\hfill \\ & & \times \mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\lambda }{v_\mathrm{F}}\frac{d}{\mathrm{cos}\varphi }\right)\mathrm{exp}\left(2\pi i\frac{2\mathrm{\Phi }}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}\frac{d\mathrm{tan}\varphi }{L}\right)\hfill \\ & & f_{2,>}(x,\varphi )=f_{1,<}(x+d\mathrm{tan}\varphi )\hfill \\ & & \times \mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\lambda }{v_\mathrm{F}}\frac{d}{\mathrm{cos}\varphi }\right)\mathrm{exp}\left(2\pi i\frac{2\mathrm{\Phi }}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}\frac{d\mathrm{tan}\varphi }{L}\right).\hfill \end{array}$$
(9)   
Here $`f_{i,>(<)}(x,\varphi )=f(𝐑_i,𝐧)|_{(\mathrm{𝐧𝐍}_i)>0(<0)}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0=2\pi \mathrm{}c/e`$ is the flux quantum. It is convenient to expand the functions $`f_i`$ in the Fourier series: $`f_{i,<}(x)=_qf_{i,q}e^{iqx}`$. Since $`f(x+L,𝐧)=f(x,𝐧)`$, the wave number is quantized: $`q=m(2\pi /L)`$, where $`m=0,\pm 1,\mathrm{}`$. Substitution of the expressions (9) in Eq. (7) results in the following equation for the eigenvalues $`\lambda _{m,k}(\mathrm{\Phi })=(v_\mathrm{F}/d)z_{m,k}(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ of the Liouville operator (4):

$$F_m(z,\nu )A_m^2(z,\nu )1=0.$$
(10)   
Here $`\nu =2\mathrm{\Phi }/\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ and

$`A_m={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{sin}\varphi _0}}{\displaystyle _0^{\varphi _0}}𝑑\varphi \mathrm{cos}\varphi \mathrm{exp}(z\mathrm{sec}\varphi )`$ (11)   
$`\times \mathrm{cos}[2\pi \delta (m\nu )\mathrm{tan}\varphi ].`$ (12)   
To guarantee correct normalization of the distribution function of reflected particles, the prefactor $`\mathrm{sin}^1\varphi _0`$ has been included in the definition of $`A_m`$.

The eigenvalues of the Liouville operator at fixed $`m`$ are labeled by $`k=0,1,2,\mathrm{}`$, and have complex conjugated partners for all $`(m,k)`$. At $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0`$, Eq. (10) has the solution $`z_{0,0}=0`$ corresponding to the equilibrium distribution function, which does not depend on $`𝐧`$ and $`𝐫`$. It is clear from Eq. (11) that the eigenvalues $`\lambda _{m,k}(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ have the following property: $`\lambda _{m,k}(\mathrm{\Phi }+\mathrm{\Phi }_0/2)=\lambda _{m+1,k}(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ so that any quantity which can be represented in the form $`_{m,k}h(\lambda _{m,k}(\mathrm{\Phi }))`$, where $`h(\lambda )`$ is some function, must be periodic function of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ with the period of half the flux quantum $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$. Note that, since the eigenvalues of the Liouville operator physically correspond to the relaxation rates of different harmonics of a nonequilibrium classical distribution function, the real parts of all $`\lambda _{m,k}`$ are positive.

Using the representation of the sum over $`i=(m,k)`$ in Eqs. (3) and (5) as an integral over a contour $`C`$ enclosing all zeros of the function $`F_m(\nu ,z)`$ in the complex plane of $`z`$:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{m,k}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{[\omega _n+\lambda _{m,k}(\mathrm{\Phi })]^2}}`$   
$`=\left({\displaystyle \frac{d}{v_\mathrm{F}}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}{\displaystyle _C}{\displaystyle \frac{dz}{2\pi i}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(z+\omega _nd/v_\mathrm{F})^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{}{z}}\mathrm{ln}F_m(z,\nu )`$   
$`=\left({\displaystyle \frac{d}{v_\mathrm{F}}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{z^2}}\mathrm{ln}F_m(z,\nu )|_{z=\omega _nd/v_\mathrm{F}},`$   
we finally obtain

$`{\displaystyle \frac{I}{I_0}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2s\delta ^2}{\pi N^3}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}\right)^2\mathrm{Re}{\displaystyle \underset{n>0}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}n`$ (14)   
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{}{\nu }}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{z^2}}\mathrm{ln}F_m(z,\nu )|_{z=2\pi \delta nT/N\mathrm{\Delta }},`$   
where $`I_0=ev_\mathrm{F}/L`$ is the current carried by a single electron state in an ideal one-dimensional ring, and $`F_m(z,\nu )`$ is given by Eq. (10).

Due to the existence of different energy scales in the system, the temperature dependence of the persistent current is characterized by several distinct regimes. The smallest energy scale is the mean level spacing $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, which also limits the applicability of the thermodynamic approach itself. Two other scales are given by the inverse times $`t_L^1=v_\mathrm{F}/L=N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`t_d^1=v_\mathrm{F}/d=N\mathrm{\Delta }/\delta `$. It follows from Eqs. (14) and (11) that at $`Tt_d^1`$ the persistent current is exponentially small: $`II_0\mathrm{exp}(T/N\mathrm{\Delta })`$.

In a multichannel ring, there also exists yet another energy scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_cN\mathrm{\Delta }`$, whose origin can be most easily understood if to return to Eq. (5). Using the identity $`a^2=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑ye^{ay}y`$ and calculating the sum over $`n`$, we end up with the following expression

$$\frac{I}{I_0}=\frac{s}{2\pi ^4\delta }\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{T}_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{d\xi \xi ^2}{\mathrm{sinh}^2\xi }\phi (\xi ;T,\mathrm{\Phi }),$$
(15)   
where

$$\phi =\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_0d}{2v_\mathrm{F}}\mathrm{Re}\underset{m,k}{}\frac{d\lambda _{m,k}(\mathrm{\Phi })}{d\mathrm{\Phi }}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\lambda _{m,k}(\mathrm{\Phi })\xi }{\pi T}\right).$$
(16)   
At sufficiently low temperatures, the dominant contribution comes from $`\lambda _{0,0}(\mathrm{\Phi })`$, which is the solution of Eq. (10) with smallest real part. At $`\mathrm{\Phi }0`$, the energy $`E_c`$ coincides with $`\lambda _{0,1}(\mathrm{\Phi }=0)`$, and at $`TE_c`$ the sum over $`(m,k)`$ in Eq. (16) can be replaced by its value at $`m=k=0`$. It follows from Eq. (10) that $`z_{0,0}(\nu )=2\pi \delta ^2|\mathrm{ln}\delta |\nu ^2`$ at $`\nu 0`$, and we obtain:

$$\frac{I}{I_0}=\frac{2s}{3\pi }\left(\delta \mathrm{ln}\frac{1}{\delta }\right)\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{T}\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}.$$
(17)   
Thus the persistent current and also the orbital magnetic moment $`M=\pi R^2I`$ of a ballistic ring exhibit a Curie-type response on magnetic flux at $`\mathrm{\Delta }TE_c`$.

The energy $`E_c`$ is associated with the relaxation time $`t_c=E_c^1`$ of any initially nonequilibrium state of the system to a spatially uniform and isotropic distribution (the ergodic time). In the systems with diffusive electron dynamics, $`t_c=L^2/D`$ ($`L`$ is the system size, $`D`$ is the diffusion coefficient) and $`E_c`$ is called Thouless energy. In general, it is not so easy, however, to say what the ergodic time is in ballistic systems . In our case, it can be estimated from simple physical considerations, without solving Eq. (10) explicitly, as follows. The typical flight time $`t_f`$ between two reflections (see Fig. 2) is

$$t_f=\frac{1}{v_\mathrm{F}}\sqrt{l^2(\varphi )}t_L\delta ^{3/4}.$$
(18)   
Since the particle completely “forgets” the initial direction of its momentum after each collision with the walls, the characteristic time for establishing an isotropic momentum distribution is of the order of $`t_f`$. In contrast, the characteristic time of filling uniformly all available configuration space is much longer. Indeed, the typical displacement between two collisions is given by $`\sqrt{(\delta x)^2}v_\mathrm{F}t_fL\delta ^{3/4}`$. According to the central limit theorem, the probability to find a particle at the distance $`\mathrm{\Delta }x=_{i=1}^M\delta x_i`$ after $`M1`$ collisions obeys the Gaussian distribution with the standard deviation $`\sqrt{(\mathrm{\Delta }x)^2}=\sqrt{M(\delta x)^2}`$. Substituting here $`Mt/t_f`$ and using Eq. (18), we obtain

$$(\mathrm{\Delta }x(t))^2=D_{\mathrm{eff}}t,D_{\mathrm{eff}}v_\mathrm{F}^2t_f.$$
(19)   
Thus the motion of an electron along the circumference of the ring is in fact diffusive at $`tt_f`$, and

$$E_c=\frac{D_{\mathrm{eff}}}{L^2}t_L^1\delta ^{3/4}.$$
(20)   
In a narrow multichannel ring the hierarchy of the characteristic energy scales looks as follows: $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_ct_L^1t_f^1t_d^1`$. Note that all our results are valid if one can neglect the deflection of the electron trajectories inside the ring by an external magnetic field, which is the case if the inverse cyclotron radius $`R_c^1=(eB/mv_\mathrm{F})`$ is smaller than the inverse typical flight length $`(v_\mathrm{F}t_f)^1`$. This condition, rewritten as $`\mathrm{\Phi }/\mathrm{\Phi }_0N\delta ^{7/4}`$, is always satisfied in narrow rings.

In order to facilitate comparison of our results with the experimental data, let us rewrite Eq. (17) in a different form, using the identity $`\mathrm{\Delta }/T=N^1(L_T/L)`$, where $`L_T=v_\mathrm{F}/T`$ is the length scale associated with temperature. In the experiment of Ref. , $`\delta 0.1`$, $`N4`$, $`L_T/L5`$, so that $`T\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{<}{}\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Due to the presence of the factor $`\delta \mathrm{ln}\delta 1`$ in Eq. (17), the predicted current turns out to be smaller than the experimentally observed (and also than the theoretically calculated for the case of specular reflection ). This discrepancy can be attributed to the fact that, because of the low density of carriers, the Fermi wavelength greatly exceeds the size of the surface irregularities, so that a considerable fraction of particles gets reflected specularly rather than diffusely (i.e., $`p<1`$), and one should describe the semiclassical dynamics in the experimental conditions of Ref.  as “weakly chaotic”.

To summarize, we calculated the persistent current in a small clean metal ring, in which the electron dynamics is chaotic due to the stochastic surface scattering. A general analytical expression for the persistent current is derived in the limit of “strong chaos”, and a Curie-type orbital magnetic response on a small external flux is predicted at $`\mathrm{\Delta }TE_c`$.

The author would like to thank B. Simons for interest in this work and useful discussions. This work was financially supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK.