Mesoscopic conductivity

Recently the question has been raised as to whether the electrical conductivity of isolated mesoscopic metal particles, that is particles in the submicrometer order of magnitude, and of intrinsic conductive polymers (ICP) have some properties in common. In this section we outline the metallic properties and the origin of mesoscopic conductivity (small metal particles). 

In situ FABRICATION OF MESOSCOPIC CONDUCTING POLYMER HETEROLAYERS SUPERLATTICE... 

These quantum effects, though they do not generally affect significantly the magnitude of the resistivity, introduce new features in the low temperature transport effects [8]. So, in addition to the semiclassical ideal and residual resistivities discussed above, we must take into account the contributions due to quantum localisation and interaction effects. These localisation effects were found to confirm the 2D character of conduction in MWCNT. In the same way, experiments performed at the mesoscopic scale revealed quantum oscillations of the electrical conductance as a function of magnetic field, the so-called universal conductance fluctuations (Sec. 5.2). 

Typical magnetoconductance data for the individual MWCNT are shown in Fig. 4. At low temperature, reproducible aperiodic fluctuations appear in the magnetoconduclance. The positions of the peaks and the valleys with respect to magnetic field are temperature independent. In Fig. 5, we present the temperature dependence of the peak-to-peak amplitude of the conductance fluctuations for three selected peaks (see Fig. 4) as well as the rms amplitude of the fluctuations, rms[AG]. It may be seen that the fiuctuations have constant amplitudes at low temperature, which decrease slowly with increasing temperature following a weak power law at higher temperature. The turnover in the temperature dependence of the conductance fluctuations occurs at a critical temperature Tc = 0.3 K which, in contrast to the values discussed above, is independent of the magnetic field. This behaviour was found to be consistent with a quantum transport effect of universal character, the universal conductance fluctuations (UCF) [25,26]. UCFs were previously observed in mesoscopic weakly disordered... 

So, despite the very small diameter of the MWCNT with respeet to the de Broglie wavelengths of the charge carriers, the cylindrical structure of the honeycomb lattice gives rise to a 2D electron gas for both weak localisation and UCF effects. Indeed, both the amplitude and the temperature dependence of the conductance fluctuations were found to be consistent with the universal conductance fluctuations models for mesoscopic 2D systems applied to the particular cylindrical structure of MWCNTs [10]. 

Landauer proposed in 1957 the first mesoscopic theoretical approach to charge transport [176]. Transport is treated as a scattering problem, ignoring initially all inelastic interactions. Phase coherence is assumed to be preserved within the entire conductor. Transport properties, such as the electrical conductance, are intimately related to the transmission probability for an electron to cross the system. Landauer considered the current as a consequence of the injection of electrons at one end of a sample, and the probability of the electrons reaching the other end. The total conductance is determined by the sum of all current-carrying eigenmodes and their transmission probability, which leads to the Landauer formula of a ID system ... 

The occurrence of kinetic instabilities as well as oscillatory and even chaotic temporal behavior of a catalytic reaction under steady-state flow conditions can be traced back to the nonlinear character of the differential equations describing the kinetics coupled to transport processes (diffusion and heat conductance). Studies with single crystal surfaces revealed the formation of a large wealth of concentration patterns of the adsorbates on mesoscopic (say pm) length scales which can be studied experimentally by suitable tools and theoretically within the framework of nonlinear dynamics. [31]... 

In this section, we describe the role of fhe specific membrane environment on proton transport. As we have already seen in previous sections, it is insufficient to consider the membrane as an inert container for water pathways. The membrane conductivity depends on the distribution of water and the coupled dynamics of wafer molecules and protons af multiple scales. In order to rationalize structural effects on proton conductivity, one needs to take into account explicit polymer-water interactions at molecular scale and phenomena at polymer-water interfaces and in wafer-filled pores at mesoscopic scale, as well as the statistical geometry and percolation effects of the phase-segregated random domains of polymer and wafer at the macroscopic scale. 

In order to obtain estimates of quantum transport at the molecular scale [105], electronic structure calculations must be plugged into a formalism which would eventually lead to observables such as the linear conductance (equilibrium transport) or the current-voltage characteristics (nonequilibrium transport). The directly measurable transport quantities in mesoscopic (and a fortiori molecular) systems, such as the linear conductance, are characterized by a predominance of quantum effects—e.g., phase coherence and confinement in the measured sample. This was first realized by Landauer [81] for a so-called two-terminal configuration, where the sample is sandwiched between two metalhc electrodes energetically biased to have a measurable current. Landauer s great intuition was to relate the conductance to an elastic scattering problem and thus to quantum transmission probabilities. 

Placing a QD on one path, and changing its plunger gate voltage V, would vary the corresponding phase ol = olqd- If the 2-slit formula were valid, it would allow the determination of the dependence of olqd on V. This was the motivation of Yacoby et al. [6], who placed a QD on one path of a closed mesoscopic ABI. Indeed, the measured conductance was periodic in cj>, and the detailed dependence of Q on varied with V. However, close to a resonance the data did not fit the simple 2-slit formula they required more harmonics in 4>, e.g. of the form... 

In some particular cases, however, the analytical solution to this problem can be attained by the methods of the generalized circuit theory [49, 20]. Within this approach, the CGF for a mesoscopic connector between two reservoirs is expressed in terms of the distribution p(T) of the transparencies of the conduction channels,... 

Fig. 1. A voltage biased mesoscopic conductor with conductance G provides the noise source for a threshold detector which is characterized by its threshold current Jth- lb is an additional current bias.

Finally, the forthcoming comprehension of superplasticity will demand a well-settled justification of the basic equations for this phenomenon. In order to achieve this goal, first-principles calculations should be conducted. This is a very challenging task, because the mechanical behaviour of grain boundaries requires an understanding of the physics involved at many different scales. At this point, simulations at microscopic as well as mesoscopic levels can become a useful tool. 

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