Negative currents in Fabry-Pérot cavities are caused by interfering paths

Mrinmoyee Saha; Luca Horray; Pedro Portugal; Christian Flindt

doi:10.1103/36rq-15v7

Negative currents in Fabry-Pérot cavities are caused by interfering paths

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Abstract

It has been predicted that the time-dependent current in a Fabry-Pérot cavity can turn negative even if the applied voltage pulses are always positive. It has also been suggested that the negative currents are related to interfering paths; however, an analytic description of this surprising phenomenon has so far been missing. Here, we make use of Floquet scattering theory to demonstrate that the negative currents indeed are caused by the interference of scattering paths through the cavity with different numbers of round trips. Our analytic result can be tested in future experiments, as it predicts exactly how the effect should be washed out by an increasing temperature. We show that a similar phenomenon is expected for the heat current, which may also turn negative.

Original language	English
Article number	L081408
Pages (from-to)	L0814081-L0814086
Number of pages	6
Journal	Physical Review B
Volume	112
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/36rq-15v7
Publication status	Published - 21 Aug 2025
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

We thank P. Burset, M. Kari, J. Kotilahti, M. Moskalets, and B. Roussel for useful discussions and acknowledge the support from the Finnish Doctoral School in Quantum Science and Technology and Research Council of Finland through the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Quantum Technology (Grant No. 352925) and the Finnish Quantum Flagship.

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10.1103/36rq-15v7

Negative_currents_in_Fabry-Pérot_cavities_are_caused_by_interfering_pathsFinal published version, 366 KB

https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.13144Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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Negative currents in Fabry-Pérot cavities are caused by interfering paths

Abstract

Funding

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-: Finnish Quantum Flagship

-: Finnish Centre of Excellence in Quantum Technology

Cite this

Negative currents in Fabry-Pérot cavities are caused by interfering paths

Abstract

Funding

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

-: Finnish Quantum Flagship

-: Finnish Centre of Excellence in Quantum Technology

Cite this