Local Hall probe measurements and differential magneto-optical imaging with high spatial resolution have been used to investigate the magnetic state of high temperature superconducting Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+� (BSCCO) micro-disks and platelet single crystals. The results obtained by magneto-optical imaging demonstrate that the field at which flux quantised vortices enter the disks decays exponentially with increasing temperature and the measured data agree well with analytic models for the thermal excitation of individual pancake vortices over Bean-Livingston surface barriers. Scanning Hall probe microscopy images are used to directly map the magnetic induction profiles of individual micro-disks at different applied fields and the results can be quite successfully fitted to analytic models which assume a continuous distribution of flux in the sample. At low fields, however, the characteristic mesoscopic compression of vortex clusters in increasing magnetic fields has been observed. Even at higher fields, where single vortex resolution is lost, it is still possible to track configurational changes in the vortex patterns, since competing vortex orders impose unmistakable signatures on local magnetisation curves as a function of the applied field. These observations are in excellent agreement with molecular dynamics numerical simulations which lead to a natural definition of the lengthscale for the crossover between discrete and continuum behaviours in this system. In closely related experiments, Hall magnetometry is used to probe the out-of-plane local magnetisation of platelet BSCCO single crystals. The magnetisation is found to depend on the strength and direction of an in-plane magnetic field in the crossing vortex lattices regime. The remanent magnetisation in zero out-of-plane field is found to exhibit a pronounced anisotropy, being largest with the in-plane field parallel to the crystalline a-axis, and smallest when it is parallel to the orthogonal b-axis. This behaviour is attributed to the presence of underlying linear disorder. Finally, spectral analysis of the local magnetisation data is used to estimate a lower cutoff for the characteristic frequency of thermal fluctuations of vortex positions.

This thesis deals with electron correlation effects within low-dimensional, mesoscopic systems. We study phenomena within two different types of system in which correlations play an important role. The first involves the spectra and spin structure of small symmetric quantum dots, or &quoteartificial atoms&quote. The second is the &quote0.7 structure&quote, a well-known but mysterious anomalous conductance plateau which occurs in the conductance profile of a quantum point contact. Artificial atoms are manufactured mesoscopic devices: quantum dots which resemble real atoms in that their symmetry gives them a &quoteshell structure&quote. We examine two-dimensional circular artificial atoms numerically, using restricted and unrestricted Hartree-Fock simulation. We go beyond the mean-field approximation by direct calculation of second-order correlation terms; a method which works well for real atoms but to our knowledge has not been used before for quantum dots. We examine the spectra and spin structure of such dots and find, contrary to previous theoretical mean-field studies, that Hund's rule is not followed. We also find, in agreement with previous numerical studies, that the shell structure is fragile with respect to a simple elliptical deformation. The 0.7 structure appears in the conductance of a quantum point contact. The conductance through a ballistic quantum point contact is quantised in units of 2e^2/h. On the lowest conductance step, an anomalous narrow conductance plateau at about G = 0.7 x 2e^2/h is known to exist, which cannot be explained in the non-interacting picture. Based on suggestive numerical results, we model conductance through the lowest channel of a quantum point contact analytically. The model is based on the screening of the electron-electron interaction outside the QPC, and our observation that the wavefunctions at the Fermi level are peaked within the QPC. We use a kinetic equation approach, with perturbative account of electron-electron backscattering, to demonstrate that these simple features lead to the existence of a 0.7-like structure in the conductance. The behaviour of this structure reproduces experimentally observed features of the 0.7 structure, including the temperature dependence and the behaviour under applied in-plane magnetic fields.

Rectification phenomena in two specific mesoscopic systems are reviewed. The phenomenon is called ratchet effect, and such systems are called ratchets. In this thesis, particularly a rocked quantum-dot ratchet, and a tunneling ratchet are considered. The origin of the name is explained in a brief historical background. Due to rectification, there is a net non-vanishing electronic current, whose direction can be reversed by changing rocking amplitude, the Fermi energy, or applying magnetic field to the devices (for the rocked ratchet), and tuning the temperature (for the tunneling ratchet). In the last part, a theoretical examination based on the Landauer-B&uuml / ttiker formalism of mesoscopic quantum transport is presented.

This thesis deals with electron correlation effects within low-dimensional, mesoscopic systems. We study phenomena within two different types of system in which correlations play an important role. The first involves the spectra and spin structure of small symmetric quantum dots, or &quoteartificial atoms&quote. The second is the &quote0.7 structure&quote, a well-known but mysterious anomalous conductance plateau which occurs in the conductance profile of a quantum point contact. Artificial atoms are manufactured mesoscopic devices: quantum dots which resemble real atoms in that their symmetry gives them a &quoteshell structure&quote. We examine two-dimensional circular artificial atoms numerically, using restricted and unrestricted Hartree-Fock simulation. We go beyond the mean-field approximation by direct calculation of second-order correlation terms; a method which works well for real atoms but to our knowledge has not been used before for quantum dots. We examine the spectra and spin structure of such dots and find, contrary to previous theoretical mean-field studies, that Hund's rule is not followed. We also find, in agreement with previous numerical studies, that the shell structure is fragile with respect to a simple elliptical deformation. The 0.7 structure appears in the conductance of a quantum point contact. The conductance through a ballistic quantum point contact is quantised in units of 2e^2/h. On the lowest conductance step, an anomalous narrow conductance plateau at about G = 0.7 x 2e^2/h is known to exist, which cannot be explained in the non-interacting picture. Based on suggestive numerical results, we model conductance through the lowest channel of a quantum point contact analytically. The model is based on the screening of the electron-electron interaction outside the QPC, and our observation that the wavefunctions at the Fermi level are peaked within the QPC. We use a kinetic equation approach, with perturbative account of electron-electron backscattering, to demonstrate that these simple features lead to the existence of a 0.7-like structure in the conductance. The behaviour of this structure reproduces experimentally observed features of the 0.7 structure, including the temperature dependence and the behaviour under applied in-plane magnetic fields.

The field of soft mesoscopics targets meso-structures in soft materials to elucidate the emergence of complex material behavior and biological function in soft and living materials. A snapshot of some activities in the field is provided by the contributions gathered in this focus issue.