Dimensional crossover in quantum networks: from macroscopic to mesoscopic Physics

Abstract

We report on magnetoconductance measurements of metallic networks of various sizes ranging from 10 to $10^{6}$ plaquettes, with anisotropic aspect ratio. Both Altshuler-Aronov-Spivak (AAS) $h/2e$ periodic oscillations and Aharonov-Bohm (AB) $h/e$ periodic oscillations are observed for all networks. For large samples, the amplitude of both oscillations results from the incoherent superposition of contributions of phase coherent regions. When the transverse size becomes smaller than the phase coherent length $L_\phi$, one enters a new regime which is phase coherent (mesoscopic) along one direction and macroscopic along the other, leading to a new size dependence of the quantum oscillations.