Signatures of quantum chaos in the nodal points and streamlines in electron transport through billiards

Abstract

Streamlines and the distributions of nodal points are used as signatures of chaos in coherent electron transport through three types of billiards: Sinai, Bunimovich, and rectangular. Numerical averaged distribution functions of the nearest distances between nodal points are presented. We find the same form for the Sinai and Bunimovich billiards and suggest that there is a universal form that can be used as a signature of quantum chaos for electron transport in open billiards. The universal distribution function is found to be insensitive to the way the averaging is performed (over the positions of the leads, over an energy interval with a few conductance fluctuations, or both). The integrable rectangu-lar billiard, on the other hand, displays a nonuniversal distribution with a central peak related to partial order of nodal points for the case of symmetric attachment of the leads. However, cases with asymmetric leads tend to the universal form. Also, it is shown how nodal points in the rectangular billiard can lead to “channeling of quantum flows,” while disorder in the nodal points in the Sinai billiard gives rise to unstable irregular behavior of the flow.