Mach-Zehnder interferometry with periodic voltage pulses

Abstract

We investigate a Mach-Zehnder interferometer driven by a time-dependent\nvoltage. Motivated by recent experiments, we focus on a train of Lorentzian\nvoltage pulses which we compare to a sinusoidal and a constant voltage. We\ndiscuss the visibilities of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the current and in\nthe noise. For the current, we find a strikingly different behavior in the\ndriven as compared to the static case for voltage pulses containing multiple\ncharges. For pulses containing fractional charges, we find a universality at\npath-length differences equal to multiples of the spacing between the voltage\npulses. These observations can be explained by the electronic energy\ndistribution of the driven contact. In the noise oscillations, we find\nadditional features which are characteristic to time-dependent transport.\nFinite electronic temperatures are found to have a qualitatively different\ninfluence on the current and the noise.\n