CALCULATION OF THE RESIDUAL RESISTIVITY OF 3-DIMENSIONAL QUANTUM WIRES

An exact scattering theory formulation of the elastic transport proble m is used in a 1s tight-binding implementation to calculate the zero-t emperature elastic resistances of disordered three-dimensional quantum wires with cross sections as large as 14X14 atoms and lengths of up t o hundreds of atoms. A real-space Green function technique is used to construct the wires. The technique is flexible and simple to implement , making it possible to study a range of different geometries, types o f disorder, and combinations thereof. The possible use of such calcula tions to evaluate the bull: residual resistivity of the respective mat erials is outlined. Attention is given to the statistics and the confi gurational averaging of the calculated results. The transition from th e Ohmic to the localization regime in the wires is also studied. The s hape of this transition, obtained from the numerical results, is found to correspond well to a curious semiempirical analytic form. Model ca lculations with different types of on-site disorder, and with interfac ial roughness, combined with impurity scattering, are presented at the end.