Measurement of the full distribution of the persistent current in normal-metal rings

We have measured the persistent current in individual normal metal rings over a wide range of magnetic fields. From this data, we extract the first six cumulants of the single-ring persistent current distribution. Our results are consistent with the theoretical prediction that this distribution should be nearly Gaussian (i.e., that these cumulants should be nearly zero) for diffusive metallic rings. This measurement highlights the particular sensitivity of persistent current to the mesoscopic fluctuations within a single coherent volume.