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Characteristics Length in Mesoscopic System

This document discusses the characteristic lengths that are important in mesoscopic systems, including wavelength, mean free path, phase relaxation length, and localization length. It defines mesoscopic regimes based on how these lengths compare to the system size L, including the diffusive metallic regime where a≪ Lm ≪ L < Lφ, the diffusive regime where a≪ Lm ≪ L < Lφ ξ, and the ballistic regime where a≪ Lm ∼ L < Lφ. Understanding these characteristic lengths is crucial for determining the properties and transport regimes of mesoscopic systems.

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Ankan Das Roy
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246 views

Characteristics Length in Mesoscopic System

This document discusses the characteristic lengths that are important in mesoscopic systems, including wavelength, mean free path, phase relaxation length, and localization length. It defines mesoscopic regimes based on how these lengths compare to the system size L, including the diffusive metallic regime where a≪ Lm ≪ L < Lφ, the diffusive regime where a≪ Lm ≪ L < Lφ ξ, and the ballistic regime where a≪ Lm ∼ L < Lφ. Understanding these characteristic lengths is crucial for determining the properties and transport regimes of mesoscopic systems.

Uploaded by

Ankan Das Roy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Characteristics length in mesoscopic system(PS664)

Ashish Sharma
(Pre Ph.D. student )
SPS J.N.U.
Outlines
• Introduction
• Why characteristic length is important ?
• Types ( 1.wavelength , 2. mean free path and 3.phase relaxation
length)
• Mesoscopic Regimes
• References
Mesoscopic system

Nature

Macro Micro world

Mesoscopic
system
Why to characterise these length?
• When we go to low dimensions like nanometre and low temperature region . So these length
plays important role to find the properties like conductance and working regime .

• Three regime in which a mesoscopic system works


Diffusive metallic regime (or metallic grain)
Diffusive regime
Ballistic regime
Wavelength
At low temperature current is mainly due to the electrons so at this condition electrons energy near to fermi
energy so its really impotent to consider the fermi wavelength for the material.
2𝜋 2𝜋
wavelength λ = 𝑘𝑓
= 𝑛𝑠
(in case of 2d)

For electron density 5 x 1011 / 𝑐𝑚2


λ= 35 nm

Other electrons having less energy , they have longer wavelength they don’t contribute to conductance
We don’t worry about them .
Mean free path
• An electron moves in a perfect crystal as like electron moves in a vacuum . But in real crystal there is
impurities and lattice vibration takes place due to that electrons undergoes collisions with impurities
and other electrons .
• When collisions happen the momentum of election changes so its really impotent to take care of this
there is relation which is given by
1 α𝑚
τ𝑚 τ𝑐
Where α𝑚 is called effectiveness of individual Collison of destroying momentum
The mean free path is the distance travelled by the electron travel before its momentum is lost .
L𝑚 = υ𝑓 τ𝑚 where is υ𝑓 is fermi velocity
(τ𝑚 is called momentum relaxation time)
when we put typical values is formulas
𝑘𝑓 2𝜋𝑛𝑠
υ𝑓 = ћ =ћ υ𝑓 = 3x 107 𝑐𝑚/𝑠𝑒𝑐 for 𝑛𝑠 = 5 x 1011 / 𝑐𝑚2
𝑚 𝑚
τ𝑚 =100 ps (assume) and L𝑚 =3 micro meter
Phase relaxation length
• We use mean free path analogy to understand this
1 α𝞍
( where α𝞍 is called effectivenes of individual
τ𝞍 τ𝑐
collision destroying phase)
The coherence length ℓ𝞍 is associated with a time scale τ𝞍 that takes an electron in a diffusive system
to traverse a distance ℓ𝞍 .
The relation between ℓ𝞍 and τ𝞍 is given by
ℓ𝞍 = (𝐷τ𝞍 ) where D is the diffusion constant,

𝑑𝑛
which is related to the conductivity σ=𝑒 2 D (through the Einstein relation
𝑑𝐸
And n is the electron density)
Both ℓ𝞍 and τ𝞍 decrease with increasing temperature.
Localization length
In the presence of static disorder, the wave functions in one-dimension decay exponentially
At large distance with some characteristic length scale  which depends on energy and strength of disorder.
 is referred to as the localization length, and the phenomenon is called Anderson localization. Thus, if L >
 , we expect the current to decay exponentially.
from Anderson theory
According to Bose- Einstein condensate
Speckle field V(x). V(x) characterized by average intensity 𝑉𝑅 and correlation length 𝑅 Then, the
localization length is estimated
π𝑚2 𝑉𝑅2 2𝑅
 (k)=γ(k)= 2ћ2 𝐾2 k2(1−kσ𝑅 )Θ(1−kσ𝑅 )
−1

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/273752/localization-length-in-anderson-localized-systems
Mesoscopic Regime
A mesoscopic system is said to be in the diffusive regime if

a≪ 𝐿𝑚 ≪ L < 𝐿𝞍
In considering the diffusive metallic regime (or metallic grain), we require that the system size L is
much less than the localization length ξ
a≪ 𝐿𝑚 ≪ L < 𝐿𝞍 ξ
In the ballistic regime we require that
a≪ 𝐿𝑚 ∼ L < 𝐿𝞍
References
• Low-Dimensional Quantum Systems(Yehuda B. Band, Yshai Avishai, in Quantum
Mechanics with Applications to Nanotechnology and Information Science, 2013)
• Electronic Transport in Mesoscopic Systems by Supriyo Datta
• https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/273752/localization-length-in-
anderson-localized-systems

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