Electron transport through a quantum interferometer: a theoretical study

In the present work, we explore the properties of electron transport through a quantum interferometer attached symmetrically to two one-dimensional semi-infinite metallic electrodes, namely the source and the drain. The interferometer is made up of two sub-rings where individual sub-rings are penetrated by the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) fluxes phi(1) and phi(2), respectively. We adopt a simple tight-binding framework to describe the model, and all the calculations are done based on the single-particle Green's function formalism. Our exact numerical calculations describe two-terminal conductance and current as functions of the interferometer-to-electrode coupling strength, magnetic fluxes threaded by left and right sub-rings of the interferometer and the difference of these two fluxes. Our theoretical results reveal several interesting features of electron transport across the interferometer, and these aspects may be utilized to study electron transport in AB geometries.