Aharonov-Bohm ring with a side-coupled atomic cluster: magneto-transport and the selective switching effect

Abstract

We report electronic transmission properties of a tight binding Aharonov-Bohm ring threaded by a magnetic flux, to one arm of which a finite cluster of atoms has been attached from one side. we demonstrate that, by suitably choosing the number of scatterers in each arm of the quantum ring and, by decoupling the ring from the atomic cluster, the transmission across the ring can be completely blocked when the flux threading the ring becomes equal to half the fundamental flux quantum. A transmission resonance then occurs immediately as the coupling between the ring and the impurity cluster is switched 'on'. It is shown that the delta-like transmission resonances occur precisely at the eigenvalues of the side coupled chain of atoms.Thw 'switching' effect can be observed either for all the eigenvalues of the isolated atomic cluster, or for a selected set of them, depending on the number of scatterers in the arms of the ring. The ring-dot coupling can be gradually increased to suppress the oscillations in the magneto-transmission completely. However, the suppression can lead either to a complete transparency or no transmission at all, occasionally accompanied by a reversal of phase at special values of the magnetic flux.