Eur. Phys. J. B (2017) 90: 56
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2017-80025-8

Regular Article

Magnetic flux and strain effects on electron transport in a linear array of nanoscopic rings

Center for Computational Nanoscience, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306, USA

^a e-mail: ysjoe@bsu.edu

Received: 10 January 2017
Published online: 27 March 2017

Abstract

Electron transport through a linear array of nanoscopic rings with six quantum dot sites per ring is investigated in the presence of an external magnetic flux producing an Aharonov-Bohm phase shift effect. A tight-binding model is employed to analytically calculate the transmission as a function of electron energy, external flux, and inter-site coupling parameters. Current vs. voltage relationships of the ring system are computed using a standard scattering theory of transport and shown to modulate between semiconductor and ohmic characteristics. System parameters are adjusted in order to study the effects of a longitudinal strain on the transmission properties of the linear multiple-ring array. Longitudinal strain is modeled with a Slater-Koster type theory and is demonstrated to affect the transmission properties primarily by narrowing the transmission bands and opening up additional bandgaps in the band structure. In addition, a universal resonant transmission condition as a function of flux is extended to show that the application of strain causes the resonant transmission peaks to converge towards one-half of a flux quantum.