We consider resonant transmission through a finite-length quantum wire connected to leads via finite transparency junctions. The coherent electron transport is strongly modified by the Coulomb interaction. The low-temperature current-voltage ($IV$) curves show step-like dependence on the bias voltage determined by the distance between the quantum levels inside the conductor, the pattern being dependent on the ratio between the charging energy and level spacing. If the system is tuned close to the resonance condition by the gate voltage, the low-voltage $IV$ curve is Ohmic. At large Coulomb energy and low temperatures, the conductance is temperature-independent for any relationship between temperature, level spacing, and coupling between the wire and the leads.
In this paper we use a simple straightforward technique to investigate the emergence of a bound state in a weakly bent wire. We show that the bend behaves like an infinitely shallow potential well, and in the limit of small bending angle and low energy the bend can be presented by a simple 1D delta function potential.
We analyze the behavior of the four-terminal resistance, relative to the two-terminal resistance of an interacting quantum wire with an impurity, taking into account the invasiveness of the voltage probes. We consider a one-dimensional Luttinger model of spinless fermions for the wire. We treat the coupling to the voltage probes perturbatively, within the framework of non-equilibrium Green function techniques. Our investigation unveils the combined effect of impurities, electron-electron interactions and invasiveness of the probes on the possible occurrence of negative resistance.
We have measured the temperature dependence of the conductance in long V-groove quantum wires (QWRs) fabricated in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. Our data is consistent with recent theories developed within the framework of the Luttinger liquid model, in the limit of weakly disordered wires. We show that for the relatively small amount of disorder in our QWRs, the value of the interaction parameter g is g=0.66, which is the expected value for GaAs. However, samples with a higher level of disorder show conductance with stronger temperature dependence, which does not allow their treatment in the …
We calculate the finite-temperature conductance of clean, weakly interacting one-dimensional quantum wires subject to Rashba spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic field. For chemical potentials near the center of the Zeeman gap ($μ= 0$), two-particle scattering causes the leading deviation from the quantized conductance at finite temperatures. On the other hand, for $|μ| > 0$, three-particle scattering processes become more relevant. These deviations are a consequence of the strongly nonlinear single-particle spectrum, and are thus not accessible using Luttinger liquid theory. We discuss the obse…
Resonant tunneling through a quantum dot weakly coupled to Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids is discussed. The linear conductance due to sequential tunneling is calculated by solving a master equation for temperatures below and above the average level spacing in the dot. When the parameter g characterizing the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid is smaller than 1/2, the resonant tunneling process is incoherent down to zero temperature. At low temperature T the height and width of the conductance peaks in the Coulomb blockade oscillations are proportional to T^{(1/g)-2} and T, respectively. The contribution fro…
We study the conductance of three or more semi-infinite wires which meet at a junction. The electrons in the wires are taken to interact weakly with each other through a short-range density-density interaction, and they encounter a general scattering matrix at the junction. We derive the renormalization group equations satisfied by the S-matrix, and we identify its fixed points and their stabilities. The conductance between any pair of wires is then studied as a function of physical parameters such as temperature. We discuss the possibility of observing the effects of junctions in present day …
We discuss how a Lagrange multiplier method of non-equilibrium steady state statistical mechanics can be applied to describe the electronic transport in a quantum wire. We describe a theoretical scheme using tight-binding model. The Hamiltonian of the wire is extended via a Lagrange multiplier to ``open'' the quantum system and to drive the current through it. Diagonalization of the extended Hamiltonian yields transport properties of the wire. We show that the Lagrange multiplier method is equivalent to the Landauer approach within the considered model.
We considered the proposed Quantum Cable as a kind of transport spectroscopy of one-dimensional (1D) density of states (DOS) of cylindrical quantum wires. By simultaneously detecting the direct current through the cylindrical quantum wire and the leaked tunneling current into the neighboring wire at desired temperatures, one can obtain detailed information about 1D DOS and subband structure of cylindrical quantum wires.
Despite the importance of Si:P delta-doped wires for modern nanoelectronics, there are currently no computational models of electron transport in these devices. In this paper we present a nonequilibrium Green's function model for electronic transport in a delta-doped wire, which is described by a tight-binding Hamiltonian matrix within a single-band effective-mass approximation. We use this transport model to calculate the current-voltage characteristics of a number of delta-doped wires, achieving good agreement with experiment. To motivate our transport model we have performed density-functio…
We derive a master equation for the electron transport through molecular wires in the limit of strong Coulomb repulsion. This approach is applied to two typical situations: First, we study transport through an open conduction channel for which we find that the current exhibits an ohmic-like behaviour. Second, we explore the transport properties of a bridged molecular wire, where the current decays exponentially as a function of the wire length. For both situations, we discuss the differences to the case of non-interacting electrons.
We study thermal transport in a one-dimensional quantum wire, connected to reservoirs. Despite of the absence of electron backscattering, interactions in the wire strongly influence thermal transport. Electrons propagate with unitary transmission through the wire and electric conductance is not affected. Energy, however, is carried by bosonic excitations (plasmons) which suffer from scattering even on scales much larger than the Fermi wavelength. If the electron density varies randomly, plasmons are localized and {\em charge-energy separation} occurs. We also discuss the effect of plasmon-plas…
We study the effect of thermal equilibration on the transport properties of a weakly interacting one-dimensional electron system. Although equilibration is severely suppressed due to phase-space restrictions and conservation laws, it can lead to intriguing signatures in partially equilibrated quantum wires. We consider an ideal homogeneous quantum wire. We find a finite temperature correction to the quantized conductance, which for a short wire scales with its length, but saturates to a length-independent value once the wire becomes exponentially long. We also discuss thermoelectric properties…
An array of quantum wires is a natural starting point in realizing two-dimensional topological phases. We study a system of weakly coupled quantum wires with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, proximity coupled to a conventional s-wave superconductor. A variety of topological phases are found in this model. These phases are characterized by "Strong" and "Weak" topological invariants, that capture the appearance of mid-gap Majorana modes (either chiral or non-chiral) on edges along and perpendicular to the wires. In particular, a phase with a single chiral Majorana edge mode (analogous to a $p+ip$ sup…
We study transport through multiply coupled carbon nano-tubes (quantum wires) and compute the conductances through the two wires as a function of the two gate voltages $g_1$ and $g_2$ controlling the chemical potential of the electrons in the two wires. We find that there is an {\it equilibrium} cross-conductance, and we obtain its dependence on the temperature and length of the wires. The effective action of the model for the wires in the strong coupling (equivalently Coulomb interaction) limit can also be mapped to a system of capacitively coupled quantum dots. We thus also obtain the conduc…
Quantum conductance fluctuations are investigated in disordered 3D topological insulator quantum wires. Both experiments and theory reveal a new transport regime in a mesoscopic conductor, pseudo-ballistic transport, for which ballistic properties persist beyond the transport mean free path, characteristic of diffusive transport. It results in non-universal conductance fluctuations due to quasi-1D surface modes, as observed in long and narrow Bi$_2$Se$_3$ nanoribbons. Spin helical Dirac fermions in quantum wires retain pseudo-ballistic properties over an unusually broad energy range, due to st…
The effect of deconfinement due to finite band offsets on transport through quantum wires with two constrictions is investigated. It is shown that the increase in resonance linewidth becomes increasingly important as the size is reduced and ultimately places an upper limit on the energy (temperature) scale for which resonances may be observed.
We study charge and spin transport through an interacting quantum wire, caused by backscattering off an effective impurity potential with a periodic time-dependence. The adiabatic regime of this pump for charge and spin is shown to depend on the presence of interactions in the wire. Using symmetry and scaling properties of the quantum wire Hamiltonian we relate the charge $Q$ and spin $S$ transported through the wire in a period to an integral involving quasi-static backscattering conductances. We also show that the pumped charge $Q$ (or the spin $S$) is quantized in the adiabatic limit if the…
Electronic transport properties of the disordered quantum wires are considered. The disorder is introduced via impurities (point scatterers), distributed uniformly over the two-dimensional strip, which represents a model quantum wire. Incident electrons with a given energy are scattered on impurities and boundaries of the wire. The electron-electron interaction is neglected in the model. In particular, the intermediate regime and the localization regime of transport are studied in more detail in terms of the conductance and statistical properties of S-matrix ensemble for a given incident elect…
We investigate dynamical transport properties of interacting electrons moving in a vibrating nanoelectromechanical wire in a magnetic field. We have built an exactly solvable model in which electric current and mechanical oscillation are treated fully quantum mechanically on an equal footing. Quantum mechanically fluctuating Aharonov-Bohm phases obtained by the electrons cause nontrivial contribution to mechanical vibration and electrical conduction of the wire. We demonstrate our theory by calculating the admittance of the wire which are influenced by the multiple interplay between the mechan…
We study nonequilibrium quantum transport through a mesoscopic wire coupled via local exchange to a ferromagnetic spin chain. Using the Keldysh formalism in the self-consistent Born approximation, we identify fingerprints of the magnetic polaron state formed by hybridization of electronic and magnon states. Because of its low decoherence rate, we find coherent transport signals. Both elastic and inelastic peaks of the differential conductance are discussed as a function of external magnetic fields, the polarization of the leads and the electronic level spacing of the wire.
Density, temperature and magnetic field dependences on electron transport in a quantum wire were studied. Decrease of carrier density gives a negative conductance correction on the first plateau at low temperatures. The prominent and mysterious "0.7 structure" is more clearly resolved at low densities. The thermal behavior of the conductance follows the predictions of the spin-incoherent transport. The 0.7 structure at a low density drops to $e^2/h$ in a smaller in-plane magnetic field. The features are qualitatively consistent with the theoretical predictions and provide evidence for the exis…
We study the low-temperature transport properties of 1D quantum wires as the confinement strength V_conf and the carrier density n_1D are varied using a combination of split gates and a top gate in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. At intermediate V_conf and n_1D, we observe a jump in conductance to 4e^2/h, suggesting a double wire. On further reducing n_1D, plateau at 2e^2/h returns. Our results show beginnings of the formation of an electron lattice in an interacting quasi-1D quantum wire. In the presence of an in-plane magnetic field, mixing of spin-aligned levels of the two wires gives rise to…
We explore electron transport properties in molecular wires made of heterocyclic molecules (pyrrole, furan and thiophene) by using the Green's function technique. Parametric calculations are given based on the tight-binding model to describe the electron transport in these wires. It is observed that the transport properties are significantly influenced by (a) the heteroatoms in the heterocyclic molecules and (b) the molecule-to-electrodes coupling strength. Conductance ($g$) shows sharp resonance peaks associated with the molecular energy levels in the limit of weak molecular coupling, while t…
The purpose of this work is to fabricate ribbon-like InGaAs and InAsP wires embedded in InP ridge structures and investigate their transport properties. The InP ridge structures that contain the wires are selectively grown by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) on pre-patterned InP substrates. To optimize the growth and micro-fabrication processes for electronic transport, we explore the Ohmic contact resistance, the electron density, and the mobility as a function of the wire width using standard transport and Shubnikov-de Haas measurements. At low temperatures the ridge structures reveal reproducibl…
We study transport properties of weakly interacting one-dimensional electron systems including on an equal footing thermal equilibration due to three-particle collisions and the effects of large-scale inhomogeneities. We show that equilibration in an inhomogeneous quantum wire is characterized by the competition of interaction processes which reduce the electrons total momentum and such which change the number of right- and left-moving electrons. We find that the combined effect of interactions and inhomogeneities can dramatically increase the resistance of the wire. In addition, we find that …
We model the effect of phase-breaking collisions on the coherent electron transport in a disordered one-dimensional single-channel wire. In our model the phase-breaking collisions break the wire into segments, where each segment is an independent series resistor with coherent electronic resistance and the segmentation is a stochastic process with Poisson distribution of phase-breaking scattering times. The wire resistance as a function of the wire length $L$, coherence length $L_ϕ$, and localisation length $ξ$ is calculated and the transition from coherent to incoherent transport is traced qua…
Non-equilibrium Green's functions calculations based on density functional theory show a direct link between the initial stages of H$_2$ dissociation on a gold atomic wire and the electronic current supported by the gold wire. The simulations reveal that for biases below the stability threshold of the wire, the minimum-energy path for H$_2$ dissociation is not affected. However, the electronic current presents a dramatic drop when the molecule initiates its dissociation. This current drop is traced back to quantum interference between electron paths when the molecule starts interacting with th…
We investigate electron transport through a mono-atomic wire which is tunnel coupled to two electrodes and also to the underlying substrate. The setup is modeled by a tight-binding Hamiltonian and can be realized with a scanning tunnel microscope (STM). The transmission of the wire is obtained from the corresponding Green's function. If the wire is scanned by the contacting STM tip, the conductance as a function of the tip position exhibits oscillations which may change significantly upon increasing the number of wire atoms. Our numerical studies reveal that the conductance depends strongly on…
We develop a theory of thermal transport of weakly interacting electrons in quantum wires. Unlike higher-dimensional systems, a one-dimensional electron gas requires three-particle collisions for energy relaxation. The fastest relaxation is provided by the intrabranch scattering of comoving electrons which establishes a partially equilibrated form of the distribution function. The thermal conductance is governed by the slower interbranch processes which enable energy exchange between counterpropagating particles. We derive an analytic expression for the thermal conductance of interacting elect…
When a quantum wire is weakly confined, a conductance plateau appears at e^2/h with decreasing carrier density in zero magnetic field accompanied by a gradual suppression of the 2e^2/h plateau. Applying an in-plane magnetic field B|| does not alter the value of this quantization; however, the e^2/h plateau weakens with increasing B|| up to 9 T, and then strengthens on further increasing B||, which also restores the 2e^2/h plateau. Our results are consistent with spin-incoherent transport in a one-dimensional wire.
We investigate the influence of a quantized photon field on thermoelectric transport of electrons through a quantum wire embedded in a photon cavity. The quantum wire is connected to two electron reservoirs at different temperatures leading to a generation of a thermoelectric current. The transient thermoelectric current strongly depends on the photon energy and the number of photons initially in the cavity. Two different regimes are studied, off-resonant and resonant polarized fields, with photon energy smaller than, or equal to the energy spacing between some of the lowest states in the quan…
We report low-dimensional tunneling in an independently contacted vertically coupled quantum wire system. This nanostructure is fabricated in a high quality GaAs/AlGaAs parallel double quantum well heterostructure. Using a novel flip chip technique to align top and bottom split gates to form low-dimensional constrictions in each of the independently contacted quantum wells we explicitly control the subband occupation of the individual wires. In addition to the expected 2D-2D tunneling results, we have found additional tunneling features that are related to the 1D quantum wires.
The authors apply the generalized master equation to analyze time-dependent transport through a finite quantum wire with an embedded subsystem. The parabolic quantum wire and the leads with several subbands are described by a continuous model. We use an approach originally developed for a tight-binding description selecting the relevant states for transport around the bias-window defined around the values of the chemical potential in the left and right leads in order to capture the effects of the nontrivial geometry of the system in the transport. We observe a partial current reflection as a m…
Electron energy distribution in a mesoscopic diffusive wire in the presence of an external ac voltage is obtained. At low temperatures the distribution has a form of a multi-step staircase, with the step width equal to the field energy quantum. Analytic results for the field frequency high and low compared to Thouless energy are obtained, while the intermediate frequency regime is analyzed numerically. Manifestations in the tunneling spectroscopy and noise measurements are discussed.
In a two-dimensional quantum wire in a perpendicular magnetic field with a smooth embedded repulsive scattering potential we find in the multimode conductance resonances caused by bound states with negative binding energy. These resonances are the counterexamples to well known dips in the conductance and evanescent states caused by quasi-bound states of attractive scattering centers in the wire.
We study contact effects on electron transport across a molecular wire sandwiched between two semi-infinite (carbon) nanotube leads as a model for nanoelectrodes. Employing the Landauer scattering matrix approach we find that the conductance is very sensitive to parameters such as the coupling strength and geometry of the contact. The conductance exhibits markedly different behavior in the two limiting scenarios of single contact and multiple contacts between the molecular wire and the nanotube interfacial atoms. In contrast to a single contact the multiple-contact configuration acts as a filt…
The paper deals with the theoretical investigation of intrasubband plasmons in an array of quantum wires, consisting of a finite number of quantum wires, arranged at an equal distance from each other and placed into an external magnetic field. Two types of quantum wire array are under consideration: an ordered array of quantum wires with equal electron densities in all quantum wires and weakly disordered array of quantum wires, which is characterized by the fact that the density of electrons of one defect quantum wire was different from that of other quantum wires. For the ordered array of qua…
In this study, we propose a recursive approach to study the transport properties of atomic wires. It is based upon a real-space block-recursion technique with Landauer's formula being used to express the conductance as a scattering problem. To illustrate the method, we have applied it on a model system described by a single band tight-binding Hamiltonian. Results of our calculation therefore may be compared with the reported results on Na-atom wire. Upon tuning the tight-binding parameters, we can distinctly identify the controlling parameters responsible to decide the width as well as the pha…
Charge transport measurements on flexible Mo$_{6}$S$_{3}$I$_{6}$ (MoSI) nanowires with different diameters in highly imperfect 2-terminal circuits reveal systematic power law behaviour of the conductivity $σ(T,V)$ as a function of temperature and voltage. On the basis of measurements on a number of circuits we conclude that the behaviour in \emph{thin} wires can be most convincingly described by tunneling through Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) segments of MoSI wire, which is in some cases modified by environmental Coulomb blockade (ECB). The latter are proposed to arise from deformations or i…
Electronic transport is theoretically investigated in laterally confined semiconductor superlattices using the formalism of non-equilibrium Green's functions. The transport properties are calculated for nanowire superlattices of varying diameters, from the quantum dot superlattice regime to the quantum well superlattice regime. Scattering processes due to electron-phonon couplings, phonon anharmonicity, charged impurities, surface and interface roughness and alloy disorder are included on a microscopic basis. Elastic scattering mechanisms are treated in a partial coherent way beyond the self-c…
We study the voltage drop along three-terminal disordered wires in all transport regimes, from the ballistic to the localized regime. This is performed by measuring the voltage drop on one side of a one-dimensional disordered wire in a three-terminal set-up as a function of disorder. Two models of disorder in the wire are considered: (i) the one-dimensional Anderson model with diagonal disorder and (ii) finite-width bulk-disordered waveguides. Based on the known $β$-dependence of the voltage drop distribution of the three-terminal chaotic case, being $β$ the Dyson symmetry index ($β=1$, 2, and…
A noninteracting quantum-dot array side-coupled to a quantum wire is studied. Transport through the quantum wire is investigated by using a noninteracting Anderson tunneling Hamiltonian. The conductance at zero temperature develops an oscillating band with resonances and antiresonances due to constructive and destructive interference in the ballistic channel, respectively. Moreover, we have found an odd-even parity in the system, whose conductance vanishes for an odd number of quantum dots while becomes $2e^2/h$ for an even number. We established an explicit relation between this odd-even pari…
We investigate theoretically the spin-dependent electron transport in a Rashba quantum wire with rough edges. The charge and spin conductances are calculated as function of the electron energy or the wire length by adopting the spinresolved lattice Green function method. For a single disordered Rashba wire, it is found that the charge conductance quantization is destroyed by the edge disorder. However, a nonzero spin conductance can be generated and its amplitude can be manipulated by the wire length, which is attributed to the broken structure symmetries and the spin-dependent quantum interfe…
Transport through a one-dimensional wire of interacting electrons connected to semi infinite leads is investigated using a bosonization approach. The dynamic nonlocal conductivity is rigorously expressed in terms of the transmission. For abrupt variations of the interaction parameters at the junctions, an incident electron is transmitted as a sequence of partial charges: the central wire acts as a Fabry-Pérot resonator. The dc conductance is shown to be given by the total transmission which turns out to be perfect. When the wire has a tendency towards superconducting order, partial Andreev ref…
We analyze the low-voltage transport response of large molecular wires bridging graphene electrodes, where the molecules are physisorbed onto the graphene sheets by planar anchor groups. In our study, the sheets are pulled away to vary the gap length and the relative atomic positions. The molecular wires are also translated in directions parallel and perpendicular to the sheets. We show that the energy position of the Breit-Wigner molecular resonances is universal for a given molecule, in the sense that it is independent of the details of the graphene edges, gaps lengths or of the molecule pos…
We develop an electron transport theory for the hybrid system of a semiconducting carbon nanotube that encapsulates a one-atom-thick metallic wire. The theory predicts Fano resonances in electron transport through the system, whereby the interaction of electrons on the wire with nanotube plasmon generated near-fields blocks some of the wire transmission channels to open up the new coherent plasmon-mediated channel in the nanotube forbidden gap outside the wire transmission band. Such a channel makes the entire hybrid system transparent in the energy domain where neither wire, nor nanotube is i…
Structural disorder is present in almost all experimental measurements of electronic transport through single molecules or molecular wires. To assess its influence on the conductance is computationally demanding, because a large number of conformations must be considered. Here we analyze an approximate recursive layer Green function approach for the ballistic transport through quasi one-dimensional nano-junctions. We find a rapid convergence of the method with its control parameter, the layer thickness, and good agreement with existing experimental and theoretical data. Because the computation…
We study the transport properties of a long non-uniform quantum wire where the electron-electron interactions and the density vary smoothly at large length scales. We show that these inhomogeneities lead to a finite resistivity of the wire, due to a weak violation of momentum conservation in the collisions between electrons. Estimating the rate of change of momentum associated with non-momentum-conserving scattering processes, we derive the expression for the resistivity of the wire in the regime of weakly interacting electrons and find a contribution linear in temperature for a broad range of…
The conductance of disordered wires with symplectic symmetry is studied by the supersymmetric field theory. Special attention is focused on the case where the number of conducting channels is odd. Such a situation can be realized in metallic carbon nanotubes. The average dimensionless conductance g is obtained using Zirnbauer's super-Fourier analysis. It is shown that with increasing wire length, g approaches to 1 in the odd-channel case, while g vanishes in the ordinary even-channel case. It should be emphasized that the so-called Zirnbauer's zero mode, which has been believed to be unphysica…
We develop a detailed theoretical investigation of the effect of Coulomb interaction on electron transport in arrays of chaotic quantum dots and diffusive metallic wires. Employing the real time path integral technique we formulate a new Langevin-type of approach which exploits a direct relation between shot noise and interaction effects in mesoscopic conductors. With the aid of this approach we establish a general expression for the Fano factor of 1D quantum dot arrays and derive a complete formula for the interaction correction to the current which embraces all perturbative results previousl…
The ballistic conductance of a coupled $T$-shaped semiconductor quantum wire (CTQW) are studied. Two types of CTQW are considered, one of which is a $Π$-shaped quantum wire ($Π$QW) which consists of two transverse wires on the same side of the main wire and the other a $Π$-clone quantum wire ($Π$CQW) which consists of two transverse wires on the opposite sides of the main wire. The mode matching method and Landauer-Buttiker theory are employed to study the energy dependence of the ballistic conductance. Most of transmission profiles of $Π$QW and $Π$CQW are found to be distinguishable for large…
Magnetic barriers in graphene are not easily tunable. However, introducing both electric and magnetic fields, provides tunable and far more controllable electronic states in graphene. Here we study such systems. A one-dimensional channel can be formed in graphene using perpendicular electric and magnetic fields. This channel (quantum wire) supports localized electron-hole states, with parameters that can be controlled by an electric field. Such quantum wire offers peculiar conducting properties, like unidirectional conductivity and robustness to disorder. Two separate quantum wires comprise a …
We theoretically investigate photo-thermoelectric transport through a quantum wire in a photon cavity coupled to electron reservoirs with different temperatures. Our approach, based on a quantum master equation, allows us to investigate the influence of a quantized photon field on the heat current and thermoelectric transport in the system. We find that the heat current through the quantum wire is influenced by the photon field resulting in a negative heat current in certain cases. The characteristics of the transport are studied by tuning the ratio, $\hbarω_γ / k_{\rm B} ΔT$, between the phot…
We study the effect of an electrostatic coupling between a scanning tunneling microscope tip and a Luttinger liquid wire on the tunneling current and noise between the two. Solving the Dyson equations non perturbatively for a local interaction potential, we derive the Green's functions associated to the wire and to the tip. Interestingly, the electrostatic coupling leads to the existence of new correlators, which we call mixed Green's functions, which are correlators between the bosonic fields of the wire and the tip. Next, we calculate the transport properties up to second order with the ampl…
We have studied quantum wires using the Green's function technique and the density-functional theory, calculating the electronic structure and the conductance. All the numerics are implemented using the finite-element method with a high-order polynomial basis. For short wires, i.e. quantum point contacts, the zero-bias conductance shows, as a function of the gate voltage and at a finite temperature, a plateau at around 0.7G_0. (G_0 = 2e^2/h is the quantum conductance). The behavior, which is caused in our mean-field model by spontaneous spin polarization in the constriction, is reminiscent of …
Thermoelectric transport coefficients are determined for semiconductor quantum wires with weak thickness fluctuations. Such systems exhibit anomalies in conductance near 1/4 and 3/4 of 2e^2/h on the rising edge to the first conductance plateau, explained by singlet and triplet resonances of conducting electrons with a single weakly bound electron in the wire [T. Rejec, A. Ramsak, and J.H. Jefferson, Phys. Rev. B 62, 12985 (2000)]. We extend this work to study the Seebeck thermopower coefficient and linear thermal conductance within the framework of the Landauer-Buettiker formalism, which also …
We present a detailed numerical analysis of the effect of a magnetic field on the transport properties of a `small-$N$' one-sided surface disordered wire. When time reversal symmetry is broken due to a magnetic field $B$, we find a strong increase with $B$ not only of the localization length $ξ$ but also of the mean free path $\ell$ caused by boundary states. Despite this, the universal relationship between $\ell$ and $ξ$ does hold. We also analyze the conductance distribution at the metal-insulator crossover, finding a very good agreement with Random Matrix Theory with two fluctuating channel…
We study the interplay of both Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings (SOCs) and a uniform perpendicular magnetic field $\textbf{B}$ on the transport of a spin-polarized electron along a curved quantum wire. Eigenenergies and eigenfunctions of the system were analytically solved in the presence of both SOCs for a confinement radius $R$. From the transmission coefficients, the spin transport properties such as spin polarization, probability current density and spin conductance were computed numerically to determine their dependence on the SOCs, $\textbf{B}$ and $R$. We find the condition f…
Inelastic effects in electron transport through nano-sized devices are addressed with a method based on nonequilibrium Green's functions (NEGF) and perturbation theory to infinite order in the electron-vibration coupling. We discuss the numerical implementation which involves an iterative scheme to solve a set of coupled non-linear equations for the electronic Green's functions and the self-energies due to vibrations. To illustrate our method, we apply it to a one-dimensional single-orbital tight-binding description of the conducting electrons in atomic gold wires, and show that this simple mo…
