Heterogeneity and Disorder: Contributions of Rolf Landauer

TL;DR

This paper reviews Rolf Landauer's significant contributions to understanding electrical conduction and electron transport in disordered media, highlighting his foundational work across classical and quantum systems.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of Landauer's pioneering research on transport phenomena in disordered materials and quantum systems, emphasizing his foundational insights.

Findings

Landauer's theory of electrical conduction in inhomogeneous materials

Fundamental analysis of quantum electron transport with disorder

Impact of Landauer's work on modern condensed matter physics

Abstract

Rolf Landauer made important contributions to many branches of science. Within the broad area of transport in disordered media, he wrote seminal papers on electrical conduction in macroscopically inhomogeneous materials, as well as fundamental analyses of electron transport in quantum mechanical systems with disorder on the atomic scale. We review here some of these contributions. We also briefly describe some main events in his personal and scientific life.