Sources of negative differential resistance in electric nanotransport

TL;DR

This paper shows that negative differential resistance in nanotransport can arise from electrode properties like bandwidth and density of states, not just electron correlations, urging careful interpretation of NDR origins.

Contribution

It demonstrates that electrode characteristics alone can cause NDR effects, challenging the common attribution to electron correlations in nanotransport.

Findings

Electrode bandwidths influence NDR behavior.

Energy-dependent density of states affects NDR.

Uncorrelated models can produce NDR effects.

Abstract

A negative differential resistance (NDR) in the nanotransport is often ascribed to electron correlations. We present a simple example which demonstrates that finite electrode bandwidths and energy dependent electrode density of states are responsible for significant NDR effects, which occur even in uncorrelated nanotransport. Therefore, special care is needed in assessing the contribution of electron correlations to the NDR.