Geometrical effects and signal delay in time-dependent transport at the nanoscale

Abstract

Nonstationary and steady-state transport through a mesoscopic sample connected to particle reservoirs via time-dependent barriers is investigated by the reduced density operator method. The generalized master equation is solved via the Crank–Nicolson algorithm by taking into account the memory kernel which embodies the non-Markovian effects that are commonly disregarded. The lead–sample coupling takes into account the match between the energy of the incident electrons and the levels of the isolated sample, as well as their overlap at the contacts. Using a tight-binding description of the system, we investigate the effects induced in the transient current by the spectral structure of the sample and by the localization properties of its eigenfunctions. In strong magnetic fields, the transient currents propagate along edge states. The behavior of populations and coherences is discussed, as well as their connection to the tunneling processes that are relevant for transport.