Sub-periods and apparent pairing in integer quantum Hall interferometers

¹ Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences - D-04103, Leipzig, Germany
² Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Leipzig - D-04103, Leipzig, Germany
³ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen - DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

Received: 27 March 2019
Accepted: 24 June 2019

Abstract

We analyse the magnetic field and gate voltage dependence of the longitudinal resistance in an integer quantum Hall Fabry-Pérot interferometer, taking into account the interactions between an outermost interfering edge mode, an inner non-interfering edge mode and the bulk. For weak bulk-edge coupling and sufficiently strong inter-edge interaction, we obtain that the interferometer operates in the Aharonov-Bohm regime with a flux periodicity halved with respect to the usual expectation. Even in the regime of strong bulk-edge coupling, this behaviour can be observed as a sub-periodicity of the interference signal in the Coulomb-dominated regime. We do not find evidence for a connection between a reduced flux period and electron pairing, though. Our results can describe some recent experimental findings.