CONDUCTANCE IN DISORDERED NANOWIRES - FORWARD AND BACKSCATTERING

We present an extensive work on the conductance as well as the transmi ssion and reflection probabilities of disordered nanowires. We use a t ight-binding Hamiltonian with diagonal disorder to describe the quantu m wire, and a two-terminal Landauer-type formula for its conductance. For short wires, in the quasiballistic regime, we study the behavior o f these quantities as a function of the degree of disorder and the Fer mi energy of the electron, following their evolution when a channel di sappears, finding an effective closing of the last opened channel (for strong disorder) before the actual dosing energy. We analyze the infl uence of the length and width of the wire, noticing different transmis sion and reflection behavior depending on the incident channel. We hav e compared these results with the isotropic model predictions and foun d that these are satisfied only partially.