Classical treatment of electrons in open quantum dots

Full text: Electronic transport through open quantum dots has received much attention in recent years. The dot system is defined using finger gate structures on top of a 2DES in an AIGaAs/GaAs heterostructure. We perform magneto-resistance measurements in open quantum dots for different gate voltages that show several resistance maxima at certain magnetic fields. In a model calculation with constrictions of varying width and a parabolic anisotropic confinement potential (soft-wall) we demonstrate that this peaks may be associated with commensurate backscattered orbits. We compare our soft-wall calculations with those using a hard-wall potential. While both models yield the same position of the two-reflection trajectory, the positions for the trajectories with more than two reflections differ. The experimental results agree significantly better with the soft-wall results, thus supporting this kind of confinement for open dots defined by split gate structures. (author)