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Transmitter with two probes: Resistance as a functional of the current distribution

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Zeitschrift für Physik B Condensed Matter

Abstract

As in the Landauer-Büttiker approach to transport, a resistor is characterized by its reflection and transmission coefficients. Such a transmitter is coupled incoherently to two resistive quantum wires. These leads define an asymptotic current-distribution over the different channels and allow to adapt the current distribution to the transmitter. For carriers at fixed energy, the resistance is defined via asymptotic density differences of the diffusing carriers. This resistance, and the corresponding current distribution, can be found by minimizing a variational functional that is additively composed of lead and transmitter terms. Thus the resistance functional can be defined for the transmitter alone, coupled incoherently to leads with unspecified properties, especially to ideal leads and reservoirs. The said functional is additive for transmitters in series if interference effects between them are excluded. The contacts between ideal leads and reservoirs can be modeled as special transmitters, reproducing thus the standard results for the total resistance.

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  1. Institut für Physik, Technische Universität Chemnitz-Zwickau, Postfach 9 64, D-09009, Chemnitz, Germany

    R. Lenk

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Lenk, R. Transmitter with two probes: Resistance as a functional of the current distribution. Z. Physik B - Condensed Matter 96, 121–136 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01313023

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01313023

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