Eur. Phys. J. B 39, 385-396 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2004-00204-0

Quantized charge pumping by surface acoustic waves in ballistic quasi-1D channels

¹ School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
² Department of Physics, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
³ Albert Einstein Minerva Center for Theoretical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel

Corresponding author: ^a slava@latnet.lv

Received: 24 February 2004
Published online: 12 July 2004

Abstract

Adiabatic pumping of electrons induced by surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in a ballistic quasi-1D quantum channel is considered using an exactly solvable tight-binding model for non-interacting electrons. The single-electron degrees of freedom, responsible for acoustoelectric current quantization, are related to the transmission resonances. We study the influence of experimentally controllable parameters (SAW power, gate voltage, source-drain bias, amplitude and phase of a secondary SAW beam) on the plateau-like structure of the acoustoelectric current. The results are consistent with existing experimental observations.