Temperature-dependent suppression of conductance in quantum wires: Anomalous activation energy from pinning of the band edge - art. no. 073305

For unpolarized electrons in a clean quantum wire, density functional theor y reveals a thermally activated suppression of conductance. The activation temperature T-A crows slowly (roughly quadratically) with gate voltage due to pinning of the band edge at the chemical potential. Similar results were obtained experimentally by Kristensen et al. [Phys. Rev. B 62. 10 950 (200 0)] for the temperature dependence of the anomalous conductance plateau nea r 0.7(2e(2)/h) in a quantum point contact.