In this Ph.D thesis the conductance fluctuations of different physical origins in semi-conductor nanostructures were studied using both diagrammatic analytical methods and large scale numerical techniques. In the "mixed" transport regime where both mesoscopic and ballistic features play a role, for the first time I have analytically calculated the non-universal conductance fluctuations. This mixed regime is reached when impurities are distributed near the walls of a quantum wire, leaving the center region ballistic. I have discovered that the existence of a ballistic region destroys the universal conductance fluctuations. The crossover behavior of the fluctuation amplitude from the usual quasi-1D situation to that of the mixed regime is clearly revealed, and the role of various length scales are identified. My analytical predictions were confirmed by a direct numerical simulation by evaluating the Landauer formula. In another direction, I have made several studies of conductance or resistance oscillations and fluctuations in systems with artificial impurities in the ballistic regime. My calculation gave explanations of all the experimental results concerning the classical focusing peaks of the resistance versus magnetic field, the weak localization peak in a Sinai billiard system, the formation of a chaotic billiard, and predicted certain transport features which were indeed found experimentally. I have further extended the calculation to study the Hall resistance in a four-terminal quantum dot in which there is an antidot array. From my numerical data I analyzed the classical paths of electron motion and its quantum oscillations. The results compare well with recent experimental studies on similar systems. Since these billiard systems could provide quantum chaotic dynamics, I have made a detailed study of the consequence of such dynamics. In particular I have investigated the resonant transmission of electrons in these chaotic systems, and found that the level-s
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.34492 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Zhu, Ningjia. |
| 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 | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001554924, proquestno: NQ30431, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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