1 research outputs found
Finite size effects on transport coefficients for models of atomic wires coupled to phonons
We consider models of quasi-1-d, planar atomic wires consisting of several,
laterally coupled rows of atoms, with mutually non-interacting electrons. This
electronic wire system is coupled to phonons, corresponding, e.g., to some
substrate. We aim at computing diffusion coefficients in dependence on the wire
widths and the lateral coupling. To this end we firstly construct a numerically
manageable linear collision term for the dynamics of the electronic occupation
numbers by following a certain projection operator approach. By means of this
collision term we set up a linear Boltzmann equation. A formula for extracting
diffusion coefficients from such Boltzmann equations is given. We find in the
regime of a few atomic rows and intermediate lateral coupling a significant and
non-trivial dependence of the diffusion coefficient on both, the width and the
lateral coupling. These results, in principle, suggest the possible
applicability of such atomic wires as electronic devices, such as, e.g.,
switches.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.