Quantum Transport in Mesoscopic Systems


Book Description

Mesoscopic physics deals with systems larger than single atoms but small enough to retain their quantum properties. The possibility to create and manipulate conductors of the nanometer scale has given birth to a set of phenomena that have revolutionized physics: quantum Hall effects, persistent currents, weak localization, Coulomb blockade, etc. This Special Issue tackles the latest developments in the field. Contributors discuss time-dependent transport, quantum pumping, nanoscale heat engines and motors, molecular junctions, electron–electron correlations in confined systems, quantum thermo-electrics and current fluctuations. The works included herein represent an up-to-date account of exciting research with a broad impact in both fundamental and applied topics.




Dissipative Quantum Mechanics of Nanostructures


Book Description

Continuing miniaturization of electronic devices, together with the quickly growing number of nanotechnological applications, demands a profound understanding of the underlying physics. Most of the fundamental problems of modern condensed matter physics involve various aspects of quantum transport and fluctuation phenomena at the nanoscale. In nanostructures, electrons are usually confined to a limited volume and interact with each other and lattice ions, simultaneously suffering multiple scattering events on impurities, barriers, surface imperfections, and other defects. Electron interaction with other degrees of freedom generally yields two major consequences, quantum dissipation and quantum decoherence. In other words, electrons can lose their energy and ability for quantum interference even at very low temperatures. These two different, but related, processes are at the heart of all quantum phenomena discussed in this book. This book presents copious details to facilitate the understanding of the basic physics behind a result and the learning to technically reproduce the result without delving into extra literature. The book subtly balances the description of theoretical methods and techniques and the display of the rich landscape of the physical phenomena that can be accessed by these methods. It is useful for a broad readership ranging from master’s and PhD students to postdocs and senior researchers.




Quantum Dissipative Systems


Book Description

Starting from first principles, this book introduces the fundamental concepts and methods of dissipative quantum mechanics and explores related phenomena in condensed matter systems. Major experimental achievements in cooperation with theoretical advances have brightened the field and brought it to the attention of the general community in natural sciences. Nowadays, working knowledge of dissipative quantum mechanics is an essential tool for many physicists. This book -- originally published in 1990 and republished in 1999 and and 2008 as enlarged second and third editions -- delves significantly deeper than ever before into the fundamental concepts, methods and applications of quantum dissipative systems.This fourth edition provides a self-contained and updated account of the quantum mechanics of open systems and offers important new material including the most recent developments. The subject matter has been expanded by about fifteen percent. Many chapters have been completely rewritten to better cater to both the needs of newcomers to the field and the requests of the advanced readership. Two chapters have been added that account for recent progress in the field. This book should be accessible to all graduate students in physics. Researchers will find this a rich and stimulating source.




Quantum Transport and Dissipation


Book Description

The increasing emphasis and importance of mesoscopic systems for tomorrow's high-tech electronics industry as well as a growing research interest in the subject has given rise to the need for a modern introductory text at the graduate level. This book aims to provide the necessary theory and tools to carry out research into the various aspects of the subject. It starts with a chapter on the theory of quantum transport giving a survey of the basic theory used in transport phenomena including scattering, linear response theory, weak localization, conductance fluctuations and the Landauer-B?ttiker formalism. Various aspects of chaos in quantum systems as well as dissipative quantum systems are discussed. Other topics of importance such as single electron tunneling, driven bistable systems, quantized transport and electron liquids are also covered in detail. Graduate students as well as newcomers to this exciting and expanding field will find this work useful to adopt the necessary theory and overview required to go deeper into the original literature and to carry out research.




Scattering Matrix Approach to Non-stationary Quantum Transport


Book Description

The aim of this book is to introduce the basic elements of the scattering matrix approach to transport phenomena in dynamical quantum systems of non-interacting electrons. This approach permits a physically clear and transparent description of transport processes in dynamical mesoscopic systems, promising basic elements of solid-state devices for quantum information processing. One of the key effects, the quantum pump effect, is considered in detail. In addition, the theory for the recently implemented new dynamical source ? injecting electrons with time delay much larger than an electron coherence time ? is offered. This theory provides a simple description of quantum circuits with such a single-particle source and shows in an unambiguous way that the tunability inherent to the dynamical systems (in contrast to the stationary ones) leads to a number of unexpected but fundamental effects.




Nonequilibrium Quantum Transport Physics In Nanosystems: Foundation Of Computational Nonequilibrium Physics In Nanoscience And Nanotechnology


Book Description

This book presents the first comprehensive treatment of discrete phase-space quantum mechanics and the lattice Weyl-Wigner formulation of energy band dynamics, by the originator of these theoretical techniques. The author's quantum superfield theoretical formulation of nonequilibrium quantum physics is given in real time, without the awkward use of artificial time contour employed in previous formulations. These two main quantum theoretical techniques combine to yield general (including quasiparticle-pairing dynamics) and exact quantum transport equations in phase-space, appropriate for nanodevices. The derivation of transport formulas in mesoscopic physics from the general quantum transport equations is also treated. Pioneering nanodevices are discussed in the light of the quantum-transport physics equations, and an in-depth treatment of the physics of resonant tunneling devices is given. Operator Hilbert-space methods and quantum tomography are discussed. Discrete phase-space quantum mechanics on finite fields is treated for completeness and by virtue of its relevance to quantum computing. The phenomenological treatment of evolution superoperator and measurements is given to help clarify the general quantum transport theory. Quantum computing and information theory is covered to demonstrate the foundational aspects of discrete quantum dynamics, particularly in deriving a complete set of multiparticle entangled basis states.




Quantum Transport Calculations for Nanosystems


Book Description

As electric devices become smaller and smaller, transport simulations based on the quantum mechanics become more and more important. There are currently numerous textbooks on the basic concepts of quantum transport, but few present calculation methods in detail. This book provides various quantum transport simulation methods and shows applications




An Introduction to Quantum Transport in Semiconductors


Book Description

Throughout their college career, most engineering students have done problems and studies that are basically situated in the classical world. Some may have taken quantum mechanics as their chosen field of study. This book moves beyond the basics to highlight the full quantum mechanical nature of the transport of carriers through nanoelectronic structures. The book is unique in that addresses quantum transport only in the materials that are of interest to microelectronics—semiconductors, with their variable densities and effective masses. The author develops Green’s functions starting from equilibrium Green’s functions and going through modern time-dependent approaches to non-equilibrium Green’s functions, introduces relativistic bands for graphene and topological insulators and discusses the quantum transport changes that these bands induce, and discusses applications such as weak localization and phase breaking processes, resonant tunneling diodes, single-electron tunneling, and entanglement. Furthermore, he also explains modern ensemble Monte Carlo approaches to simulation of various approaches to quantum transport and the hydrodynamic approaches to quantum transport. All in all, the book describes all approaches to quantum transport in semiconductors, thus becoming an essential textbook for advanced graduate students in electrical engineering or physics.




Dynamics of Dissipation


Book Description

This collection of lectures treats the dynamics of open systems with a strong emphasis on dissipation phenomena related to dynamical chaos. This research area is very broad, covering topics such as nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, environment-system coupling (decoherence) and applications of Markov semi-groups to name but a few. The book addresses not only experienced researchers in the field but also nonspecialists from related areas of research, postgraduate students wishing to enter the field and lecturers searching for advanced textbook material.




Quantum Transport in Submicron Devices


Book Description

The aim of this book is to resolve the problem of electron and hole transport with a coherent and consistent theory that is relevant to the understanding of transport phenomena in submicron devices. Along the road, readers encounter landmarks in theoretical physics as the authors guide them through the strong and weak aspects of various hypotheses.