Conductance oscillations in mesoscopic rings: Microscopic versus global phase - art. no. 085404

The phase of Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in mesoscopic diffusive metal rings in the presence of a magnetic field, can be modulated by the application o f a dc-bias current I-dc. We address the question of how a variation of I-d c and hence of the microscopic phases of the electronic wave functions resu lts in the observable "global" phase of the conductance oscillations. Where as the first one can be varied continuously, the latter has to be quantized for a ring in a two-wire configuration by virtue of the Onsager symmetry r elations. We observe a correlation between a phase flip by +/-pi and the am plitude of the oscillations.