Disorder to chaos transition in the conductance distribution of corrugated waveguides

Abstract

We perform a detailed numerical study of the distribution of conductances $P(T)$ for quasi-one-dimensional corrugated waveguides as a function of the corrugation complexity (from rough to smooth). We verify the universality of $P(T)$ in both, the diffusive ($⟨T||>⟩1$) and the localized ($⟨T||\ll ⟩1$) transport regimes. However, at the crossover regime ($⟨T||\sim ⟩1$), we observe that $P(T)$ evolves from the surface-disorder to the bulk-disorder theoretical predictions for decreasing complexity in the waveguide boundaries. We explain this behavior as a transition from disorder to deterministic chaos; since, in the limit of smooth boundaries the corrugated waveguides are, effectively, linear chains of chaotic cavities.

6 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Nano-wires with surface disorder: Giant localization lengths and quantum-to-classical crossover
• Surface scattering and band gaps in rough waveguides and nanowires