Detection of Coulomb Charging around an Antidot in the Quantum Hall Regime

Abstract

We have detected oscillations of the charge around a potential hill (antidot) in a two-dimensional electron gas as a function of a large magnetic field $B$. The field confines electrons around the antidot in closed orbits, the areas of which are quantized through the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Increasing $B$ reduces each state's area, pushing electrons closer to the center, until enough charge builds up for an electron to tunnel out. This is a new form of the Coulomb blockade seen in electrostatically confined dots. Addition and excitation spectra in dc bias confirm the Coulomb blockade of tunneling.