Fractal Conductance Fluctuations of Classical Origin

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that classical chaotic systems can produce fractal conductance fluctuations, providing a classical explanation for phenomena previously attributed to quantum effects in mesoscopic systems.

Contribution

It reveals that fractal conductance fluctuations can originate from classical chaos, challenging the notion that they are solely quantum interference effects.

Findings

Classical chaotic systems exhibit fractal conductance fluctuations.

These fluctuations are unrelated to quantum interference.

The results may explain experimental observations in quantum dots.

Abstract

In mesoscopic systems conductance fluctuations are a sensitive probe of electron dynamics and chaotic phenomena. We show that the conductance of a purely classical chaotic system with either fully chaotic or mixed phase space generically exhibits fractal conductance fluctuations unrelated to quantum interference. This might explain the unexpected dependence of the fractal dimension of the conductance curves on the (quantum) phase breaking length observed in experiments on semiconductor quantum dots.