Fabrizio Dolcini
Physics of Mesoscopic Systems
The recent development of nanotechnology has shown that in many nanostructures quantum electron transport exhibits quantum coherence and obeys peculiar laws, different from those of Macroscopic and Microscopic systems. These discoveries have paved the way to a new field called Mesoscopic Physics. The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to Mesoscopic Systems, pointing out their main physical features, the theoretical modeling, and the experimental realizations, with a special focus on carbon-based materials such as nanotubes and graphene. The quantum coherence effects on the behavior of the electronic current for an arbitrary mesoscopic system (Landauer-Buettiker formula) will be particularly discussed. The final part of the is concerned with hybrid structures, i.e. systems realized connecting mesoscopic systems to superconductors in order to obtain desired and controllable transport properties (supercurrent transistors with semiconductors and nanotubes).
Program
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1.Short survey about Quantum Mechanics
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2.Introduction to Mesoscopic Physics, characteristic length-scales and purely mesoscopic effects
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3.Experimental realizations. Nanostructures, carbon-based electronics. Graphene: realization, electronic spectrum and its applications
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4.Modeling mesoscopic systems: the Landauer-Buettiker formula and its applications to quantum wires and Carbon Nanotubes.
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5.Generalization to the multi-channel case: conductance quantization and applications to Quantum Point Contacts
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6.Short review about superconductivity and Josephson Effect
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7.Hybrid structures with superconductors: the phenomenon of Andreev reflection, models for supercurrent Transistors and Beenakkers' formula.
References
S. Datta; Electronic Transport in Mesoscopic Systems (Cambridge University Press)
S. Datta, Quantum Transport: Atom to Transistor (Cambridge University Press)
Y. Imry, Introduction to Mesoscopic Physics (Oxford University Press);
D. K. Ferry & S. M. Goodnick, Transport in Nanostructures (Cambridge University Press)
T. Heinzel, Mesoscopic Electronics in Solid State Nanostructures (Wiley & Co)
Teaching
