Quantum transmission conditions for diffusive transport in graphene with steep potentials (Q723387)

Theoretical prediction and experimental demonstration of striking quantum phenomena manifested by electrons in graphene, such as the Klein paradox and Veselago lensing, are among the most important achievements of solid-state physics in the last decade, and offer interesting opportunities to nano-electronics and opto-electronics. All such phenomena are intimately related to the chiral nature of electrons in graphene and take place in presence of electric potential steps or barriers, that can be realised by means of suitable electric gates or doping profiles. Here, a hybrid model where a thin ``active'' quantum region, containing the rapid potential variations, is viewed as a ``quantum interface'' that couples the surrounding ``classical'' regions, where the transport regimes are diffusive and incoherent. The coupling is first described as the kinetic level, where the classical-quantum matching is more natural, and then the diffusive limit is analyzed by means the known Hilbert expansion method. A hybrid kinetic-quantum model for standard particles is opposed to chiral particles with conical energy-band as electrons in grapheme, has been first considered by \textit{N. Ben Abdallah} [J. Stat. Phys. 90, No. 3--4, 627--662 (1998; Zbl 0949.76075)]. The central idea of the above model is that a scattering problem is solved in the quantum region, that is a thin strip around the strip potential variations, and the resulting scattering states are identified with inflow/outflow particles in/from the classical regions. This leads to a hybrid model where transmission conditions, of quantum nature, are imposed to classical kinetic equations. The main result of the paper is the determination of the diffusive limit of the kinetic model by means of the Hilbert expansion.