PHASE TIME FOR COHERENT TRANSPORT IN 2-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURES

In this letter the expression of the phase time is derived for a two-d imensional coherent wave packet traveling through a generic mesoscopic system. The obtained analytical expression generalizes the definition of phase time for a single one-dimensional scattering state to the ca se of coherent transport through two-dimensional multichannel mesoscop ic structures, and results in a suitable average of the single-mode ph ase times, As an application, numerical results for a quantum wire and a double-barrier resonant-tunneling diode with and without an ionized impurity are also presented. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.