Magnetoconductance oscillations of a quasi-one-dimensional electron gas in a parabolic transverse potential

Abstract

We have studied theoretically the magnetoconductance oscillations in a quasi-one-dimensional electron gas with a parabolic transverse confining potential. The solution to Schr\"odinger's equation is that of a hybrid harmonic oscillator with a frequency $\ensuremath{\omega}$ that depends on both the parabolic potential and the magnetic field $B$. At $B=0$, $\ensuremath{\omega}$ equals the classical oscillation frequency of the parabolic potential. In the high-field limit, $\ensuremath{\omega}$ approaches the cyclotron frequency. The result is a nonlinear fan plot for the magnetoconductance minima, which should help to clarify the origin of conductance oscillations in narrow-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors.