The AC phase-coherent transport in mesoscopic structures is studied via a scattering approach. A general theory is presented under the guidance of two physical principles: charge and current conservation, gauge invariance. As the AC response is intrinsically a many-body problem, we have to treat the scattering problem and the charge redistribution effects in a self-consistent manner. / One quantity of particular interest is the mesoscopic capacitance. In mesoscopic structures where the electric screening length is comparable to the geometric size, the experimentally relevant capacitance is no longer due to geometry alone but to the electro-chemical potential and the capacitance crucially depends on the density of states of the conductor. Furthermore, the phase-coherent nature of the carrier motion leads to striking asymmetric effects in the magneto-capacitance. The general theory is put forth into numerical simulations where the theory is justified. / The study of AC transport in mesoscopic structures should not only help us to better understand the physics of many-body systems, but should also provide valuable knowledge in characterizing and controlling small electronic devices which is of great technological importance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.20979 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Wei, Haiqing, 1970- |
| Contributors | Guo, Hong (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001657713, proquestno: MQ50902, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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