Inelastic quantum transport in nanostructures: The self-consistent Born approximation and correlated electron-ion dynamics

A dynamical method for inelastic transport simulations in nanostructures is compared to a steady-state method based on nonequilibrium Green's functions. A simplified form of the dynamical method produces, in the steady state in the weak-coupling limit, effective self-energies analogous to those in the Born approximation due to electron-phonon coupling. The two methods are then compared numerically on a resonant system consisting of a linear trimer weakly embedded between metal electrodes. This system exhibits an enhanced heating at high biases and long phonon equilibration times. Despite the differences in their formulation, the static and dynamical methods capture local current-induced heating and inelastic corrections to the current with good agreement over a wide range of conditions, except in the limit of very high vibrational excitations where differences begin to emerge.

Correlated electron-ion dynamics in metallic systems

In this paper we briefly discuss the problem of simulating non-adiabatic processes in systems that are usefully modelled using molecular dynamics. In particular we address the problems associated with metals, and describe two methods that can be applied: the Ehrenfest approximation and correlated electron-ion dynamics (CEID). The Ehrenfest approximation is used to successfully describe the friction force experienced by an energetic particle passing through a crystal, but is unable to describe the heating of a wire by an electric current. CEID restores the proper heating.

Discretization of highly persistent correlated AR(1) shocks

The finite state Markov-chain approximation methods developed by Tauchen (1986) and Tauchen and Hussey (1991) are widely used in economics, finance and econometrics to solve functional equations in which state variables follow autoregressive processes. For highly persistent processes, the methods require a large number of discrete values for the state variables to produce close approximations which leads to an undesirable reduction in computational speed, especially in a multivariate case. This paper proposes an alternative method of discretizing multivariate autoregressive processes. This method can be treated as an extension of Rouwenhorst's (1995) method which, according to our finding, outperforms the existing methods in the scalar case for highly persistent processes. The new method works well as an approximation that is much more robust to the number of discrete values for a wide range of the parameter space.

Comment on “Electron transport through correlated molecules computed using the time-independent Wigner function: Two critical tests”

The many-electron-correlated scattering (MECS) approach to quantum electronic transport was investigated in the linear-response regime [I. Bâldea and H. Köppel, Phys. Rev. B 78, 115315 (2008). The authors suggest, based on numerical calculations, that the manner in which the method imposes boundary conditions is unable to reproduce the well-known phenomena of conductance quantization. We introduce an analytical model and demonstrate that conductance quantization is correctly obtained using open system boundary conditions within the MECS approach.

Modelling non-adiabatic processes using correlated electron-ion dynamics

Here we survey the theory and applications of a family of methods (correlated electron-ion dynamics, or CEID) that can be applied to a diverse range of problems involving the non-adiabatic exchange of energy between electrons and nuclei. The simplest method, which is a paradigm for the others, is Ehrenfest Dynamics. This is applied to radiation damage in metals and the evolution of excited states in conjugated polymers. It is unable to reproduce the correct heating of nuclei by current carrying electrons, so we introduce a moment expansion that allows us to restore the spontaneous emission of phonons. Because of the widespread use of Non-Equilibrium Green's Functions for computing electric currents in nanoscale systems, we present a comparison of this formalism with that of CEID with open boundaries. When there is strong coupling between electrons and nuclei, the moment expansion does not converge. We thus conclude with a reworking of the CEID formalism that converges systematically and in a stable manner.

Turbo-BLAST: Performance evaluation in correlated Rayleigh-Fading environment

Recent theoretical investigations of spatially correlated multitransmit and multireceive (MTMR) links show that not only independently and identically distributed links, but also spatially correlated links can offer linear capacity growth with increasing number of transmit and receive antennas. In this paper, we explore the suitability of the turbo-BLAST architecture in correlated Rayleigh-fading MTMR environments. In particular, for an MTMR system with a large number of receive antennas, a near optimal performance can be achieved by the turbo-BLAST architecture in spatially and temporarily correlated Rayleigh-fading environments. The performance of turbo-BLAST, in terms of both bit-error rate and spectral efficiency, is analyzed empirically in indoors and correlated outdoor environments.

Entanglement production by quantum error correction in the presence of correlated environment

We analyze the effect of a quantum error correcting code on the entanglement of encoded logical qubits in the presence of a dephasing interaction with a correlated environment. Such correlated reservoir introduces entanglement between physical qubits. We show that for short times the quantum error correction interprets such entanglement as errors and suppresses it. However, for longer time, although quantum error correction is no longer able to correct errors, it enhances the rate of entanglement production due to the interaction with the environment.