Faculty of Science

Department of Physics

PHYS430: Advanced Lab

Topic: Conductance Quantization

Laith Marzouka ID:1160827

Instructor: Dr. Khaled Eid

Date: 9 May, 2020

Abstract
The quantum world is full of surprises and phenomena, which makes it very
interesting to explore. The reason it was late for scientists to discover the
quantum effects is that they occur at subatomic and atomic level, and is not
noticeable on macroscopic objects. The effect we are going to study today is the
conductance quantization which is related to the microscopic representation of
the well-known- Ohm’s law. In this report, we are going to derive the formula of
the quantized conductance and then we will briefly see how to implement
quantized conductance in the lab.
Introduction
Let us consider a wire where electrons are moving freely, they move in all
directions randomly and they are scattered many times before reaching the other
end, so the mean initial velocity < v⃗i >=0 .

Fig11: Free electron Model

When we apply a potential difference across the wire, an electric field ⃗

E is
produced as well as an opposite force ⃗
F and the electrons starts to accelerate:

F=ma

ΔE < v f −v i >
eE=me =me over 1 period between collisions.
Δt Δt

Δt=τ , mean free time

< vf >
eE=me , since < v i >=0
τ
me v D e
eE= → v D = τE , where v D is called the drift velocity and is in the opposite direction of the electric field .
τ me
ΔQ
I=
Δt
ΔQ=e . N=e n A v D Δt , where Q is the charge , N is the charge density , A is the cross section Area
enAv d Δt eτ
→I= → I =enAv D , but v D= E :
Δt me
2
e
I= nτAE
me

1 Figures not marked in this report are done by me.

2
The current density J is given by:
2
I e
J= = nτE
A me

This gives us the microscopic ohm’s law:

J =σE , where σ is the conductivity, and to derive the common Ohm’s law:

1
σ= , ρ is the resistivity and is the total opposite of conductivity.
ρ

J
ρJ = = E , if we multiply both sides by L (length of the wire):
σ

I
E× L= ρJ ×L , J=
A

I
V = ρL , where V is the potential
A

ρL
→V = IR , R= This is Ohm’s law.
A

Now, the quantum weirdness happens when the width of the wire is reduced to an
atomic-level near the de Broglie wavelength.

Fig2: Electrons in a very thin wire

Since the width is comparable to the de Broglie length, the wave nature of
the electrons becomes dominant and not any wavelength will transport through
the wire, only specific values of wavelengths. Thus, the conductance is quantized.

The allowed wavelengths to go through are given by the de Broglie formula:

h
λn = , λn and pn are the momentum and the de Broglie wavelengths of an
pn
electron in quantized level n.

3
The number of of quantized wavelengths allowed to pass through the wire is
dependent on the width:
w
n=2 , we see that the relation between the “conducting channels 2” is
λD. B
proportional.

This totally makes sense, and explains what we observe. For relatively thick
wires, the fraction goes to infinity making uncountable number of conducting
channels. While for thin wires, the fraction decreases the number of conducting
channels. For w= λD .B , only 2 conducting channels pass through the wire, and
this is due to the degeneracy of the electron spin. (spin up and spin down)

To calculate the current allowed to pass the wire, we apply a potential difference
V .
There will form two currents, a right and left current.
I right=e . v n . D R , I left=e .v n . D L , D represents the electron density
v n represents velocity of electrons in channel n.
The total current I is the difference between the two opposing currents over the
total energy:
eV

I =2 e ∫ v n . (D R − D L)dE ,
3
D L equals 0 and no current is passing from the left.
o
eV
1 1
I =2 e ∫ v n ( −0) dE , D=
0 hv n hv

⃗I =2 . 1 .(eV −0)
h

e2
I =2 V
h

The quanticed conductance per channel Gn :

2
e
Gn=2 . n , n=1,2,3...
h

This equation tells us that the electrons are conducted only at specific (quantized)
integer steps which are constant.

2 Conducting channels refers to the channels at quantized energy suited to pass through the wire.
3 The electron value is doubled because of the spin-up and spin-down modes defgeneracy

4
 Fig34: Conductance quantization as function of the potential difference

The graph above illustrates how the linearity of conductivity is divided into
quantized steps as the thermal energy decreases5.
The reason why temperature affects the conductance is that because it is related
to the momentum of the electron by the kinetic energy:
P2 3
= K T , K B is Boltzmann constant, and T is the temperature.
2m 2 B

When the temperature decreases the momentum decreases as well. As a result,

1
the de Broglie wavelength increases since it is proportional to :
p
h
λ=
p

We can now follow easily the steps we did previously to check how the
wavelength affected the conductance.

4 https://www.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/beenakkr/mesoscopics/topics/qpc/physics_today/node2.html
5 Thermal energy is an alternative way of thinking about conductivity and quantized conductance as we shall see.

5
Measurement
The real world problem is that how to measure the conductance in the
laboratory, since it is nearly impossible to make a wire that is as thin as a de
Broglie wavelength!
An easy and inexpensive solution is to use a mechanically-controlled break
junction (MCBJ) setup. This setup is consistent of gold wires fixed on a stainless
steel plate and with an insulated6 spring-steel on both ends. Then, we use a
method called gear reduction which essentially for controlling the force exerted on
the gold wire in micro-scales and we use a vernier micrometer for that job.

Fig47: MCBJ system phases

This setup is simple but also powerful and can reduce the human error by large
fractions.

6 We insulate the steel since it is conductive and may affect the experiment
7https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
280567468_Electrical_properties_and_mechanical_stability_of_anchoring_groups_for_single-molecule_electronics

6
Consider this simplified diagram:

Fig5: Simplified MCBJ model for reduction factor calculation

From the figure above:

L+ ΔL=( R+t) θ , L−ΔL=Rθ
Δmic
→2 ΔL=tθ , Also θ≈tanθ=
L
Δmic
→2 ΔL=t ( ) , divide by L:
L

ΔL Δmic
2 =t ( 2 )
L L

It is obvious from the graph that the change in length “L” for the plate and the gap
“G” for the wire is proportional with respect to each one’s own length:
ΔL ΔG
2 = 8
L G

8 note that the total length of the plate is 2L not L.

7
Substituting the relation in the last equation:
ΔG Δ
=t mic
G L2
ΔG G
=t 2
Δmic L
Δmic
is called the reduction factor f :
ΔG
1 G
=t 2
f L
For example, let us consider that t=0.2 mm , G=0.5 mm and L=50 mm
Substituting in the equation:
0.2mm×0.5 mm −4
f= =4×10
50 mm×50 mm
f =2500 , this result means that a mechanical reduction of 2500 is applied to our
system, which indicates that it is a very effective way of eliminating external
vibrations and achieving atomic-scale motion.

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References

1- Lecture notes.

2- https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.4765331

3-
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280567468_Electrical_properties_and_mechanical_stability
_of_anchoring_groups_for_single-molecule_electronics

4- https://www.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/beenakkr/mesoscopics/topics/qpc/physics_today/node2.html

5- https://www.physics.purdue.edu/nanophys/laetitia/laetitia-report.pdf