Seminar on Theoretical Physics: Nanotransport, winter semester 2017/18

Prof. Dr. Carsten Timm
carsten.timm@tu-dresden.de
Room A 101, Zellerscher Weg 17
Office hours: Tuesday 08:00-10:00 and by appointment (preferred)

This page contains information on the Seminar on Theoretical Physics: Nanotransport. The seminar will start with preliminary discussions on Wednesday, October 11, 3rd teaching period (11:10) in room BZW/A120.

The transport of charge, spin, and energy in nanoscopic systems is a highly active and fascinating area of research. On the one hand, it forms the basis for applications in highly integrated electronic and spintronic devices, which are, for instance, relevant for quantum information processing. On the other hand, such systems require and allow the study of fundamental quantum mechanical processes, in particular far from thermal equilibrium. In this seminar, both theoretical concepts and methods as well as application to specific systems will be discussed in talks given by the participants. The focus will depend on the participants' interests. It is possible to combine aspects of methodology and corresponding applications in a single talk. Presentations can be given in German or English. Topics will be assigned in the first week.

Selection of possible topics:

• Concepts and Methods
  • Introduction to transport in nanostructures, Landauer theory
  • Linear respone, Onsager relations
  • Statistical physics outside of equilibrium: master equations
  • Time-convolutionless master equation
  • Coulomb blockade, spin blockade, and all that
  • Stochastic Schrödinger equation, "quantum jumps", Monte Carlo
  • Decoherence
  • What is quantum information?
  • Spin transport without spin conservation: what does that mean?
  • Energy transport (heat conduction): what have gravitation and temperature in common?
  • Strong coupling: Green-function approach (Keldysh formalism)
  • Density functional theory (use and abuse in transport calculations) and time-dependent DFT
  • Superconductivity: what changes with superconducting components?
• Applications
  • Quantum dots in semiconductor heterostructures
  • Transport through single molecules
  • Molecular spintronics
  • Quantum dots with strange spectra: topological insulators
  • Transport through monolayers
  • Spin chains: transport of spin and energy
  • Topological superconductors: evidence for Majorana states?