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Theoretical imaging of current profiles in two-dimensional devices

  • Mesoscopic Physics
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The European Physical Journal B - Condensed Matter and Complex Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract.

This paper addresses in a concise and rigorous way the basic tools for the study of local longitudinal and transverse microscopic currents in two-dimensional devices. The emphasis is on the optimized use of the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function theory together with the tight-binding representation of the electronic system. We elaborate general analytic expressions of current profiles, useful for modeling and simulating the local site-to-site flow of carriers; furthermore, in broken time-reversal symmetry, the formalism discerns unambiguously persistent and transport contributions to the bond currents. Our approach achieves a workable theoretical imaging, resolved in space and energy, of the microscopic currents through mesoscopic devices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Italy and Dipartimento di Fisica `E. Fermi', Università di Pisa, NEST-INFM, Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, 56126 Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127, Pisa, Italy

    A. Cresti

  2. NEST-INFM and Dipartimento di Fisica `E. Fermi', Università di Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127, Pisa, Italy

    G. Grosso

  3. NEST-INFM and Dipartimento di Fisica `A. Volta', Università di Pavia, via A. Bassi 6, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    G. Pastori Parravicini

Authors
  1. A. Cresti
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  2. G. Grosso
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  3. G. Pastori Parravicini
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Correspondence to A. Cresti.

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Cresti, A., Grosso, G. & Pastori Parravicini, G. Theoretical imaging of current profiles in two-dimensional devices. Eur. Phys. J. B 53, 537–549 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00408-2

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