Persistent currents in ballistic normal-metal rings

Abstract

Recent experiments renewed interest in persistent currents in mesoscopic normal-metal rings. We show that in ballistic rings in high magnetic fields the Zeeman splitting leads to periodic current quenching with period much larger than the period of the persistent current. Simple arguments show that this effect might be relevant for diffusive rings as well. Another aim of this paper is to discuss fluctuations of the persistent current due to thermal excitation of high energy levels. Being observed such fluctuations would witness a coherent state of an electron system at high temperatures when the persistent current is exponentially suppressed.