We have theoretically investigated the temperature dependence of the Aharonov-Bohm-type conductance oscillations in a mesoscopic ring structure in the purely ballistic limit. We have found that there is a crossover with temperature that is characteristic of the conductance oscillations: the usual Aharonov-Bohm oscillations are observed only above the crossover temperature and the oscillations by the electron’s motion encircling the ring region predominate below the crossover temperature. We have also found that, below the crossover temperature, the amplitude of the conductance oscillations is observed to decrease exponentially with temperature, whereas it decreases linearly above the crossover temperature, whose behavior is in sharp contrast to the diffusive case. © 1996 The American Physical Society.

• Received 6 July 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.53.1014