Random networks of carbon nanotubes and metallic nanowires have shown to be very useful in the production of transparent, conducting films. The electronic transport on the film depends considerably on the network properties, and on the inter-wire coupling. Here we present a simple, computationally efficient method for the calculation of conductance on random nanostructured networks. The method is implemented on metallic nanowire networks, which are described within a single-orbital tight binding Hamiltonian, and the conductance is calculated with the Kubo formula. We show how the network conductance depends on the average number of connections per wire, and on the number of wires connected to the electrodes. We also show the effect of the inter-/intra-wire hopping ratio on the conductance through the network. Furthermore, we argue that this type of calculation is easily extendable to account for the upper conductivity of realistic films spanned by tunneling networks. When compared to experimental measurements, this quantity provides a clear indication of how much room is available for improving the film conductivity.
We present a theory of conductance and noise in generic mesoscopic conductors connected in parallel, and we demonstrate that the additivity of conductance and of shot noise arises as a sole property of the junctions connecting the two (or more) conductors in parallel. Consequences on the functionality of devices based on the Aharonov-Bohm effect are also drawn.
We have investigated the weakly non-linear quantum transport properties of a two-dimensional quantum conductor. We have developed a numerical scheme which is very general for this purpose. The nonlinear conductance is computed by explicitly evaluating the various partial density of states, the sensitivity and the characteristic potential. Interesting spatial structure of these quantities are revealed. We present detailed results concerning the crossover behavior of the second order nonlinear conductance when the conductor changes from geometrically symmetrical to asymmetrical. Other issues of …
In disordered metals, electron-electron interactions are the origin of a small correction to the conductivity, the "Altshuler-Aronov correction". Here we investigate the Altshuler-Aronov correction of a conductor in which the electron motion is ballistic and chaotic. We consider the case of a double quantum dot, which is the simplest example of a ballistic conductor in which the Altshuler-Aronov correction is nonzero. The fact that the electron motion is ballistic leads to an exponential suppression of the correction if the Ehrenfest time is larger than the mean dwell time or the inverse tempe…
We present a new formulation to calculate the electric conductance of mesoscopic conductors by utilizing the singular value decomposition, which is a mathematical technique to manipulate matrices. Our formulation is useful in treating conductors with rather complicated atomic structures, for which naive recursion formula is cumbersome. It also has an advantage in scaling up the calculation by using parallel computation, which potentially allows us the real-scale calculations at the atomic level. On the other hands, the effects of electron-electron interactions are hard to be treated within thi…
We study the transport properties of a three dimensional atomic-scale contact in the ballistic regime. The results for the conductance and related transmission eigenvalues show how the properties of the ideal semi-infinite leads (i.e. measuring device) as well as the coupling between the leads and the conductor influence the transport in a two-probe geometry. We observe the evolution from conductance quantization to resonant tunneling conductance peaks upon changing the hopping parameter in the disorder-free tight-binding Hamiltonian which describes the leads and the coupling to the sample.
A theory of non-equilibrium (``shot'') noise and high frequency conductance in diffusive mesoscopic conductors with screening is presented. Detailed results are obtained for two simple geometries, for both large and short electron-electron scattering length $l_{ee}$, at frequencies of the order of the inverse Thouless time $1/τ_T$. The conductance and the noise are found to exhibit significant frequency dependence. For $L \ll l_{ee}$, the high-frequency ($ωτ_T \gg 1$) shot noise spectral density $S_I(ω)$ approaches a finite value between $2eI/3$ and $2eI$, depending on the screening properties…
We demonstrate a new class of molecules for exceptional performance in molecular electronics and spintronics. Phenalenyl-based radicals are stable radicals whose electronic properties can be tuned readily by heteroatom substitution. We employ density functional theory-based non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF-DFT) calculations to show that this class of molecules exhibits tunable spin- and charge-transport properties in single molecule junctions. Our simulations identify the design principles and interplay between unusually high conductivity and strong spin-filtering: Paired with moderate c…
We investigate the conductance of normal-conductor/graphene/normal-conductor (NGN) junctions for arbitrary on-site potentials in the normal and graphitic parts of the system. We find that a ballistic NGN junction can display insulating behavior even when the charge-carrier density in the graphene part is finite. This effect originates in the different k intervals supporting propagating modes in graphene and a normal conductor, and persists for moderate levels of bulk, edge, or interface disorder. The ensuing conductance thresholds could be used as an electronic tool to map out details of the g…
We present an experimental procedure for obtaining the conduction channels of low-dimensional conductors based on shot noise measurements. The transmission coefficient for each channel is determined numerically from the measured conductance and Fano factor. The channel analysis is demonstrated for atomic contacts of Ag, Au, Al and Pt, showing their channel evolution as a function of conductance and mechanical elongation. This approach can be readily applied to map the conduction channels in a wide range of nanoscale conductors under different conditions.
The method is proposed adapted for calculating the T=0 conductance of arbitrarily stretched disordered conducting strips in terms of the Kubo theory. The 2D scattering problem is solved through exact one-dimensionalization in mode representation (instead of quasiclassical) that enables to allow reasonably for quantum interference of scattered waves as well as for the effect of dephasing. The inter- and intra-mode scattering channels are shown to play quite different role, the former being responsible for diffusive smearing of the quantum levels whereas the latter for the interference effects. …
We investigate the effect of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and of a tunnel barrier on the zero conduc- tance resonances appearing in a one-dimensional conducting Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring symmet- rically coupled to two leads. The transmission function of the corresponding one-electron problem is derived within the scattering matrix approach and analyzed in the complex energy plane with focus on the role of the tunnel barrier strength on the zero-pole structure characteristic of trans- mission (anti)resonances. The lifting of the real conductance zeros is related to the breaking of the spin-reversal…
Giant oscillations of the density of electronic states and the differential conductance of a superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor structure are predicted for the case when the exchange energy, $I_0$, due to the interaction between the electron spin and the spontaneous moment of the ferromagnet is smaller than the superconductor energy gap, $Δ$. The effect is due to the extremely large degeneration of the energy level $ε= I_0$ when the superconductor phase difference $ϕ$ is close to odd multiple of $π$ ($ε$ is the electron energy measured from the Fermi-energy). This quantum interference e…
We use the scattering matrix approach to derive generalized Bardeen-like formulae for the conductances between the contacts of a phase-coherent multiprobe conductor and a tunneling tip which probes its surface. These conductances are proportional to local partial densities of states, called injectivities and emissivities. The current and the current fluctuations measured at the tip are related to an effective local non-equilibrium distribution function. This distribution function contains the quantum-mechanical phase-coherence of the charge carriers in the conductor and is given as products of…
We report a simple route to generate magnetotransport data that results in fractional quantum Hall plateaus in the conductance. Ingredients to the generating model are conducting tiles with integer quantum Hall effect and metallic linkers, further Kirchhoff rules. When connecting few identical tiles in a mosaic, fractional steps occur in the conductance values. Richer spectra representing several fractions occur when the tiles are parametrically varied. Parts of the simulation data are supported with purposefully designed graphene mosaics in high magnetic fields. The findings emphasize that th…
We analyze electron transport through relatively short coherent conductors in the presence of Coulomb interaction. We evaluate the current-voltage characteristics of such conductors taking into account the effect of an external environment. Within our model, at large conductances and low $T$ the conductance is suppressed by a universal factor which depends only on the type of the conductor. We also argue that at T=0 the system ``scatterer+shunt'' can be either an insulator or a metal depending on whether its total resistance is larger or smaller than $R_Q=h/e^2\approx 25.8$ k$Ω$. In a metallic…
We theoretically investigate the tunneling spectroscopy of a system of two parallel one-dimensional helical conductors in the interacting, Luttinger liquid regime. We calculate the non-linear differential conductance as a function of the voltage bias between the conductors and the orbital momentum shift induced on tunneling electrons by an orthogonal magnetic field. We show that the conductance map exhibits an interference pattern which is characteristic to the interacting helical liquid. This can be contrasted with the different interference pattern from tunneling between regular Luttinger li…
We observed the recently predicted quantum suppression of dynamical Coulomb blockade on short coherent conductors by measuring the conductance of a quantum point contact embedded in a tunable on-chip circuit. Taking advantage of the circuit modularity we measured most parameters used by the theory. This allowed us to perform a reliable and quantitative experimental test of the theory. Dynamical Coulomb blockade corrections, probed up to the second conductance plateau of the quantum point contact, are found to be accurately normalized by the same Fano factor as quantum shot noise, in excellent …
We consider a one-channel coherent conductor with a good transmission embedded into an ohmic environment whose impedance is equal to the quantum of resistance R_q=h/e^2 below the RC frequency. This choice is motivated by the mapping of this problem to a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid with one impurity whose interaction parameter corresponds to the specific value K=1/2, allowing for a refermionization procedure. The "new" fermions have an energy-dependent transmission amplitude which incorporates the strong correlation effects and yields the exact dc current and zero-frequency noise through expressi…
In linear transport, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem relates equilibrium current correlations to the linear conductance coefficient. Theory and experiment have shown that in small electrical conductors the non-linear I-V-characteristic of two-terminal conductor exhibits terms which are asymmetric in magnetic field and thus micro-reversibility is manifestly broken. We discuss a non-equilibrium fluctuation dissipation theorem which is not based on micro-reversibility. It connects the antisymmetric nonlinear conductance with the third cumulant of equilibrium current fluctuations and a noise t…
We demonstrate a close relation between Coulomb effects in non-local electron transport and non-local shot noise in three-terminal metallic conductors. Provided the whole structure is normal, cross-correlations in shot noise are negative and Coulomb interaction tends to suppress both local and non-local conductances of the system. The behavior of normal-superconducting-normal structures at subgap energies is entirely different. In the tunneling limit non-local differential conductance of such systems are found to have an S-like shape and can turn negative at non-zero bias. At high transmission…
In this thesis we study electron transport through magnetic nanocontacts and nanowires with ab initio quantum transport calculations. The aim is to gain a thorough understanding of the interplay between electrical conduction and magnetism in atomic-size conductors and how it is affected by different aspects as e.g. the atomic structure and the chemical composition of the conductor. To this end our ab initio quantum transport program ALACANT which combines the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism (NEGF) with density functional theory (DFT) calculations has been extended to describe spin-p…
We describe a technique for connecting a nanometer-scale gold grain to leads by atomic-scale gold point contacts. These devices differ from previous metallic quantum dots in that the conducting channels are relatively well-transmitting. We investigate the dependence of the Coulomb blockade on contact resistance. The high-resistance devices display Coulomb blockade and the low-resistance devices display a zero-bias conductance dip, both in quantitative agreement with theory. We find that in the intermediate regime, where the sample resistance is close to $h/e^2$, the I-V curve displays a Coulom…
We study mesoscopic transport in the Q1D wires and rings made of a 2D conductor of width W and length L >> W. Our aim is to compare an impurity-free conductor with grain boundaries with a grain-free conductor with impurity disorder. A single grain boundary is modeled as a set of the 2D-$δ$-function-like barriers positioned equidistantly on a straight line and disorder is emulated by a large number of such straight lines, intersecting the conductor with random orientation in random positions. The impurity disorder is modeled by the 2D $δ$-barriers with the randomly chosen positions and signs. T…
The linear conductance of a molecular conductor oscillating between two metallic leads is investigated numerically both for Hubbard interacting and noninteracting electrons. The molecule-leads tunneling barriers depend on the molecule displacement from its equilibrium position. The results present an interesting interference which leads to a conductance dip at the electron-hole symmetry point, that could be experimentally observable. It is shown that this dip is caused by the destructive interference between the purely electronic and phonon-assisted tunneling channels, which are found to carry…
We investigated the magnetotransport properties of mesoscopic platinum nanostructures (wires and rings) with sub-100 nm lateral dimensions at very low temperatures. Despite the strong spin-orbit interaction in platinum, oscillations of the conductance as a function of the external magnetic field due to quantum interference effects was found to appear. The oscillation was decomposed into Aharonov-Bohm periodic oscillations and aperiodic fluctuations of the conductance due to a magnetic flux piercing the loop of the ring and the metal wires forming the nanostructures, respectively. We also inves…
The electrical transport properties of atomic-scale conductors are reviewed, with an emphasis on the relations of this problem with studies on quantum size effects in metallic clusters. A brief introduction is given of the natural formalism for discussing electron transport in ballistic conductors: the Landauer theory. After introducing the experimental techniques, which are used for studying ballistic point contacts in metals, the experimental observations for the conductance of atomic-scale contacts are presented. In order to obtain a full description in terms of the quantum modes for conduc…
We determine the zero-bias anomaly of the conductance of tunnel junctions by an approach unifying the conventional Coulomb blockade theory for ultrasmall junctions with the diffusive anomalies in disordered conductors. Both, electron-electron interactions within the electrodes and electron-hole interactions between the electrodes are taken into account nonperturbatively. Explicit results are given for one- and two-dimensional junctions, and the crossover to ultrasmall junctions is discussed.
We consider a nonstationary array of conductors, connected by resistances that fluctuate with time. The charge transfer between a particular pair of conductors is supposed to be dominated by "electrical breakdowns" -- the moments when the corresponding resistance is close to zero. An amount of charge, transferred during a particular breakdown, is controlled by the condition of minimum for the electrostatic energy of the system. We find the conductivity, relaxation rate, and fluctuations for such a system within the "classical approximation", valid, if the typical transferred charge is large co…
In one-dimensional conductors, interactions result in correlated electronic systems. At low energy, a hallmark signature of the so-called Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids (TLL) is the universal conductance curve predicted in presence of an impurity. A seemingly different topic is the quantum laws of electricity, when distinct quantum conductors are assembled in a circuit. In particular, the conductances are suppressed at low energy, a phenomenon called dynamical Coulomb blockade (DCB). Here we investigate the conductance of mesoscopic circuits constituted by a short single-channel quantum conductor …
Transport characteristics of pure narrow 2D-conductors, in which the electron scattering is caused by rough side boundaries, have been studied. The conductance of such strips is highly sensitive to the intercorrelation properties of inhomogeneities of the opposite edges. The case with completely correlated statistically identical boundaries (CCB) is a peculiar one. Herein the electron scattering is uniquely due to fluctuations of the asperity slope and is not related to the strip width fluctuations. Owing to this, the electron relaxation lengths, specifically the localization length, depend qu…
We develop a method to extract the universal conductance of junctions of multiple quantum wires, a property of systems connected to reservoirs, from static ground-state computations in closed finite systems. The method is based on a key relationship, derived within the framework of boundary conformal field theory, between the conductance tensor and certain ground state correlation functions. Our results provide a systematic way of studying quantum transport in the presence of strong electron-electron interactions using efficient numerical techniques such as the standard time-independent densit…
We study theoretically the conductance of heterostructures with ferromagnetic conductors (F) and a two dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit interaction (R) using the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. Assuming a one-dimensional model, we first find the $S$-matrix for the FR interface. This result is then applied to different devices such as a FRF structure, first suggested by Datta and Das[Appl. Phys. Lett. 56, 665 (1990)]. We find analytic results for the conductance for the case of collinear magnetization.
We address frequency-dependent quantum transport through mesoscopic conductors in the semiclassical limit. By generalizing the trajectory-based semiclassical theory of dc quantum transport to the ac case, we derive the average screened conductance as well as ac weak-localization corrections for chaotic conductors. Thereby we confirm respective random matrix results and generalize them by accounting for Ehrenfest time effects. We consider the case of a cavity connected through many leads to a macroscopic circuit which contains ac-sources. In addition to the reservoir the cavity itself is capaci…
We study the localization and decay properties as well as the thermal conductance of one-dimensional plasmons. Our model contains a Luttinger-liquid part with spatially random plasmon velocity and interaction parameter as well as a nonlinearity that is cubic in density. The scaling of the decay rate of plasmons is obtained in several regimes. At sufficiently high frequencies, it describes the inelastic life time of localized plasmon excitations that crosses over to the clean result with lowering frequencies. For higher frequencies, we analyze implications of many-body-localization effects that…
We have measured electron transport in small bundles of identical conducting Molybdenum Selenide nanowires where the number of weakly interacting one-dimensional chains ranges from 1-300. The linear conductance and current in these nanowires exhibit a power-law dependence on temperature and bias voltage respectively. The exponents governing these power laws decrease as the number of conducting channels increase. These exponents can be related to the electron-electron interaction parameter for transport in multi-channel 1-D systems with a few defects.
In this brief tutorial review, I show how phase coherent properties of disordered conductors can be described in a simple and unified way. These properties include transport properties like weak-localization correction and universal conductance fluctuations, and thermodynamic properties like orbital magnetism and persistent currents. They can be related to the classical return probability for a diffusive particle. For a network with $N$ nodes, the return probability can be related to the determinant of a $N \times N$ "connectivity" matrix $M$ so that the magnetization and the transport quantit…
We calculate the Landauer conductance through chaotic ballistic devices in the semiclassical limit, to all orders in the inverse number of scattering channels without and with a magnetic field. Families of pairs of entrance-to-exit trajectories contribute, similarly to the pairs of periodic orbits making up the small-time expansion of the spectral form factor of chaotic dynamics. As a clue to the exact result we find that close self-encounters slightly hinder the escape of trajectories into leads.
An analytic theory is developed for the diagonal conductivity $σ_{xx}$ of a 2D conductor which takes account of the localized states in the broaden Landau levels. In the low-field region $σ_{xx}$ display the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations which in the limit $Ωτ\gg 1$ transforms into the sharp peaks ($Ω$ is the cyclotron frequency, $τ$ is the electron scattering time). Between the peaks $σ_{xx}\to 0$. With the decrease of temperature, $T$, the peaks in $σ_{xx}$ display first a thermal activation behavior $σ_{xx}\propto \exp(-Δ/T)$, which then crosses over into the variable-range-hopping regime …
What are the quantum laws of electricity in mesoscopic circuits? This very fundamental question has also direct implications for the quantum engineering of nanoelectronic devices. Indeed, when a quantum coherent conductor is inserted into a circuit, its transport properties are modified. In particular, its conductance is reduced because of the circuit back-action. This phenomenon, called environmental Coulomb blockade, results from the granularity of charge transfers across the coherent conductor. Although extensively studied for a tunnel junction in a linear circuit, it is only fully understo…
We describe a field-theoretic approach to calculate quantum shot noise in nanoscale conductors from first principles. Our starting point is the second-quantization field operator to calculate shot noise in terms of single quasi-particle wavefunctions obtained self-consistently within density functional theory. The approach is valid in both linear and nonlinear response and is particularly suitable in studying shot noise in atomic-scale conductors. As an example we study shot noise in Si atomic wires between metal electrodes. We find that shot noise is strongly nonlinear as a function of bias a…
Using remarkably simple experimental techniques it is possible to gently break a metallic contact and thus form conducting nanowires. During the last stages of the pulling a neck-shaped wire connects the two electrodes, the diameter of which is reduced to single atom upon further stretching. For some metals it is even possible to form a chain of individual atoms in this fashion. Although the atomic structure of contacts can be quite complicated, as soon as the weakest point is reduced to just a single atom the complexity is removed. The properties of the contact are then dominantly determined …
We calculate the conductance of tubular-shaped nanowires having many potential scatterers at random positions. Our approach is based on the scattering matrix formalism and our results analyzed within the scaling theory of disordered conductors. When increasing the energy the conductance for a big enough number of impurities in the tube manifests a systematic evolution from the localized to the metallic regimes. Nevertheless, a conspicuous drop in conductance is predicted whenever a new transverse channel is open. Comparison with the semiclassical calculation leading to purely ohmic behavior is…
We study the influence of boundary conditions transverse to the transport direction for disordered mesoscopic conductors both at the Anderson metal-insulator transition and in the metallic regime. We show that the boundary conditions strongly influence the conductance distribution exactly at the metal-insulator transition and we discuss implications for the standard picture of one-parameter scaling. We show in particular that the scaling function that describes the change of conductance with system size depends on the boundary conditions from the metallic regime up to the metal-insulator trans…
We study the effect of spin-orbit interaction and in-plane effective magnetic field on the conductance of a quasi-one-dimensional ballistic electron system. The effective magnetic field includes the externally applied field, as well as the field due to polarized nuclear spins. The interplay of the spin-orbit interaction with effective magnetic field significantly modifies the band structure, producing additional sub-band extrema and energy gaps, introducing the dependence of the sub-band energies on the field direction. We generalize the Landauer formula at finite temperatures to incorporate t…
We have theoretically investigated the influence of interface roughness scattering on the low temperature mobility of electrons in quantum wires when electrons fill one or many subbands. We find the Drude conductance of the wire with length $\mathcal{L}$ first increases with increasing linear concentration of electrons $η$ and then decreases at larger concentrations. For small radius $R$ of the wire with length $\mathcal{L}$ the peak of the conductance $G_{max}$ is below $e^2/h$ so that electrons are localized. The height of this peak grows as a large power of $R$, so that at large $R$ the con…
Nonperturbative, in inverse Thouless conductance 1/g, corrections to distributions of level velocities and level curvatures in quasi-one-dimensional disordered conductors with a topology of a ring subject to a constant vector potential are studied within the framework of the instanton approximation of nonlinear sigma-model. It is demonstrated that a global character of the perturbation reveals the universal features of the level dynamics. The universality shows up in the form of weak topological oscillations of the magnitude ~ exp(-g) covering the main bodies of the densities of level velociti…
We consider transport through a one-dimensional conductor subject to an external periodic potential and connected to non-interacting leads (a "Mott quantum wire"). For the case of a strong periodic potential, the conductance is shown to jump from zero, for the chemical potential lying within the Mott-Hubbard gap, to the non-interacting value of 2e^2/h, as soon as the chemical potential crosses the gap edge. This behavior is strikingly different from that of an optical conductivity, which varies continuously with the carrier concentration. For the case of a weak potential, the perturbative corr…
We improve the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) evaluation of the Kubo formula for the zero-temperature linear conductance of one-dimensional correlated systems.The dynamical DMRG is used to compute the linear response of a finite system to an applied AC source-drain voltage, then the low-frequency finite-system response is extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit to obtain the DC conductance of an infinite system. The method is demonstrated on the one-dimensional spinless fermion model at half filling. Our method is able to replicate several predictions of the Luttinger liquid theor…
Quantum interference effects in rings provide suitable means for controlling spin at mesoscopic scales. Here we apply such control mechanisms to coherent spin-dependent transport in one- and two-dimensional rings subject to Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We first study the spin-induced modulation of unpolarized currents as a function of the Rashba coupling strength. The results suggest the possibility of all-electrical spintronic devices. Moreover, we find signatures of Berry phases in the conductance previously unnoticed. Second, we show that the polarization direction of initially polarized, tr…
We develop a new unified theoretical approach enabling us to non-perturbatively study the effect of electron-electron interactions on weak localization in arbitrary arrays of quantum dots. Our model embraces (i) weakly disordered conductors (ii) strongly disordered conductors and (iii) metallic quantum dots. In all these cases at $T \to 0$ the electron decoherence time is determined by the universal formula $τ_{φ0}\sim gτ_D/\ln (E_C/δ)$, where $g$, $τ_D$, $E_C$ and $δ$ are respectively dimensionless conductance, dwell time, charging energy and level spacing of a single dot. In the case (i) thi…
In cold, mesoscopic conductors, two-level fluctuators lead to time-dependent universal conductance fluctuations (TDUCF) manifested as $1/f$ noise. In Au nanowires, we measure the magnetic field dependence of TDUCF, weak localization (WL), and magnetic field-driven (MF) UCF before and after treatments that alter magnetic scattering and passivate surface fluctuators. Inconsistencies between $L_ϕ^{\rm WL}$ and $L_ϕ^{\rm TDUCF}$ strongly suggest either that the theory of these mesoscopic phenomena in weakly disordered, highly pure Au is incomplete, or that the assumption that the TDUCF frequency d…
The electric conductivity of Dirac electrons in the organic conductor $α$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$I$_3$ [BEDT-TTF = bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene] under pressure has been examined using a two-dimensional tight-binding (TB) model with both impurity and electron--phonon (e--p) scatterings. We study an anomalous temperature dependence of the conductivity, which shows a crossover from $σ_{x} < σ_{y}$ at low temperatures [region (I)] to $σ_{x} > σ_{y}$ at high temperatures [region (II)]. $σ_y$ and $σ_x$ are diagonal conductivities parallel and perpendicular to a stacking axis of molecules, respective…
We establish a connection between the influence functional approach of Golubev and Zaikin (GZ) and Keldysh diagrammatic perturbation theory for calculating the decoherence time of interacting electrons in disordered metals; we show how the standard diagrams for the Cooperon self energy can be recovered from GZ's influence functional $e^{- (i S_R + S_I)}$. This allows us to shed light on GZ's claim that $S_R$ is irrelevant for decoherence: $S_R$ generates as many important self energy diagrams as $S_I$; GZ's neglect of $S_R$ is permissible only at high temperatures ($T > \hbar / τ_{el}$).
We present a general theory of the superconductive proximity effect in disordered normal--superconducting (N-S) structures, based on the recently developed Keldysh action approach. In the case of the absence of interaction in the normal conductor we reproduce known results for the Andreev conductance G_A at arbitrary relation between the interface resistance R_T and the diffusive resistance R_D. In two-dimensional N-S systems, electron-electron interaction in the Cooper channel of normal conductor is shown to strongly affect the value of G_A as well as its dependence on temperature, voltage an…
Transport properties of narrow two-dimensional conducting wires in which the electron scattering is caused by side edges' roughness have been studied. The method for calculating dynamic characteristics of such conductors is proposed which is based on the two-scale representation of the mode wave functions at weak scattering. With this method, fundamentally different {\it by-height} and {\it by-slope} scattering mechanisms associated with edge roughness are discriminated. The results for single-mode systems, previously obtained by conventional methods, are proven to correspond to the former mec…
