Magneto-oscillations, nonlinearity, and nonreciprocity of Coulomb drag in quantum circuits
Phys. Rev. B 114, 305301 – Published 2 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/bg21-83qt
Abstract
We consider the problem of Coulomb drag in interactively coupled quantum circuits built of adiabatic constrictions: quantum point contacts and short quantum-wire channels. The interplay of spatial confinement and magnetic field leads to a rich oscillatory response of the drag current as a function of gate voltage and magnetic field: drag peaks track the depopulation of magnetoelectric subbands, are asymptotically periodic in inverse field, and their visibility is controlled by the competition of temperature with the field-sharpened tunneling width of the constriction. We derive a closed expression for the linear drag conductance whose interaction kernel simplifies dramatically in the experimentally relevant limit of a long thermal length compared with the range of the interwire coupling, investigate the drag in the nonlinear regime, where the drag current measures the transconductance of the drive channel at any field, and discuss physically motivated models of dissipation-induced nonreciprocity of the drag signal. Extensions accounting for Zeeman splitting, interaction renormalization of the barrier transmission, backscattering at high field, and the frequency structure of the circuit coupling delineate how each mechanism imprints itself on the temperature dependence and line shapes of the drag oscillations.
