Influence of contacts on the electron transport dynamics inside a mesoscopic system

In mesoscopic systems the Wigner function picture is used for studying electron quantum transport. In this work we present theoretical results on the effect of contact proximity in nanometric devices. If the correlation of the electron wavefunction vanishes inside the contact regions, the transport properties inside the device are affected. We have verified this influence analytically. The main effect is the dependence of the tunnel current through potential barriers on the distance between the contacts. Using three different simulation schemes we have observed modifications in the electron density and conductance for simple devices depending on the distance between the contacts.