Transport characteristics of the cross junction of atomic chains

The electronic transport through the cross junction of atomic chain wires i s investigated considering the subband coupling. The transmission and the r eflection probabilities are analyzed using the tight-binding model for the one-row, two-row, three-row and five-row chain crosses. Due to mirror symme try of the system, the number of forward-transmitted responses is limited b y parity conservation, but the side-turning transmission suffers no such re striction. The forward transmission prevails when the incident wave energy is near the band edge. However, a considerable amount of flux is directed s ideways toward the midband, and eventually, the side-turning transmission s hows a great lead over the forward transmission around the midband, which i s characteristic of the discrete atomic chain cross junction. The bound sta te at the cross point is also investigated.