INFLUENCE OF INTERFACE STRUCTURE ON TRANSVERSAL ELECTRON-TRANSPORT

The influence of the sharpness of the interface on the electron transp ort is investigated. The simple one-dimensional tight-binding model, w hich allows the consideration of an interface with arbitrary sharpness , is examined. It is shown that an interface with size much larger tha n a(lambda/a)(1/3) (where a is the lattice constant and lambda is the electron wavelength) can be considered as smooth. This means that the interface transmittance for the electron crossing is of the order of u nity. In the opposite limiting case of the sharp interface, the transm ittance becomes suppressed as (a/lambda)(2). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.