Time dependence of the average charge and current in a dissipative mesoscopic circuit

Abstract

Taking into consideration the interactions between electrons and phonons, we have studied the temporal evolution of the average charge and current in a dissipative mesoscopic RLC circuit. Our results show that a mesoscopic RLC circuit can be treated as an interactive system between an electromagnetic harmonic oscillator and many lattice harmonic oscillators; this is called the bathing of the harmonic oscillators. The results also show that the quantum equation of motion of the linear mesoscopic RLC circuit is identical in form to its classical equation of motion, the only difference between them being their respective meanings. In order to thoroughly study the quantum properties of a dissipative mesoscopic circuit, we have to consider not only the electromagnetic energy of the circuit, but also the crystal lattice vibration energy and the interactive energy between electrons and phonons.