Iva Březinová1,*, Ludger Wirtz2, Stefan Rotter1, Christoph Stampfer3, and Joachim Burgdörfer1
1Institute for Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10/136, 1040 Vienna, Austria, EU
2Department ISEN, Institute for Electronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnology (IEMN), CNRS-UMR 8520, B.P. 60069, 59652 Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France, EU
3JARA-FIT and II. Institute of Physics, RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany, EU
Received 28 October 2009; published 9 March 2010
We investigate electron transport through clean open quantum dots (quantum billiards). We present a semiclassical theory that allows to accurately reproduce quantum-transport calculations. Quantitative agreement is reached for individual energy-dependent and magnetic field dependent elements of the scattering matrix. Two key ingredients are essential: (i) inclusion of pseudopaths which have the topology of linked classical paths resulting from diffraction in addition to classical paths and (ii) a high-level approximation to diffractive scattering. Within this framework of the pseudopath semiclassical approximation (PSCA), typical shortcomings of semiclassical theories such as violation of the anticorrelation between reflection and transmission and the overestimation of conductance fluctuations are overcome. Beyond its predictive capabilities the PSCA provides deeper insights into the quantum-to-classical crossover.
© 2010 The American Physical Society
*iva.brezinova@tuwien.ac.at
