文摘
In the Landauer-Büttiker formalism developed previously, the multiterminal transmission function of a mesoscopic device constitutes the core of the description of coherent electron transport. In this chapter it will be seen how the asymptotic scattering matrix of the system as well as spatially resolved quantities of interest such as the full scattering wave function can be formally determined and practically calculated from the system Hamiltonian. This is achieved within the Green function formalism in terms of an effective, energy-dependent and non-Hermitian Hamiltonian describing the scattering region connected to the peripheral leads. The theoretical framework is reviewed from the particular viewpoint of (planar) confinement with generic, geometrically defined asymptotic scattering channels, highlighting the involved concepts and the main observable interference effects in transmission, Fano resonances and Aharonov-Bohm oscillations.