Electron transport across a microconstriction in an arbitrarily oriented homogeneous magnetic field

An analysis is made of ballistic electron transport in three-dimensional mi croconstrictions of elliptic cross section located in an arbitrarily orient ed magnetic field. The model of a parabolic confinement potential is used t o obtain and analyze the dependence of hybrid frequencies on the magnitude and direction of the magnetic field. An expansion of the conductance as a F ourier series is obtained and used to study Aharonov-Bohm and Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations as a function of the field and the stepped quantization s tructure of the conductance. A possible explanation is given for the experi mentally observed effect of conductance quantization at fairly high tempera tures. (C) 2000 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".