Deriving Landauer's formula by using the master equation approach

DOI 10.1209/0295-5075/ad56c3

We revisit the problem of two-terminal transport of non-interacting Fermi particles in a mesoscopic device. First, we generalize the transport problem by taking into consideration relaxation processes in contacts (which are characterized by the contact self-thermalization rate γ) and then solve it by using the master equation approach. In the limit �→0 the obtained results are shown to reproduce those of the Landauer theory. Thus, the presented analysis proves correspondence between the Landauer and master equation approaches to quantum transport —a problem which has been waiting for a solution for decades.