Microscopic theory of quantum-transport phenomena in mesoscopic systems: A Monte Carlo approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Monte Carlo simulation method for quantum transport in mesoscopic systems, generalizing semiconductor Bloch equations to include boundary effects, and applies it to double-barrier structures and superlattices.

Contribution

It presents a novel Monte Carlo approach for quantum transport that incorporates boundary conditions into the kinetic equations, enabling detailed analysis of phase coherence and relaxation.

Findings

Strong interplay between phase coherence and relaxation observed

Effective simulation of quantum transport in double-barrier structures

Application to superlattices demonstrates method's versatility

Abstract

A theoretical investigation of quantum-transport phenomena in mesoscopic systems is presented. In particular, a generalization to ``open systems'' of the well-known semiconductor Bloch equations is proposed. The presence of spatial boundary conditions manifest itself through self-energy corrections and additional source terms in the kinetic equations, whose form is suitable for a solution via a generalized Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed approach is applied to the study of quantum-transport phenomena in double-barrier structures as well as in superlattices, showing a strong interplay between phase coherence and relaxation.