Quantum transport and memory effects in mesoscopic structures

Abstract

A modern theory of electronic transport in mesoscopic structures needs to non-perturbatively treat the active region of the device as an open subsystem of a larger, interacting closed system, and be able to successfully capture transient processes, as well as a far-from-equilibrium steady state. We present a basis for generalization of the powerful non-equilibrium Green's functions formalism for treatment of open systems. During transient processes and far from equilibrium, we analyze the magnitude and importance of the memory terms, which appear in the two-time correlation functions and are the signatures of the system's openness.