Roughness effect on electron transport through quantum wires

In the present work we study, by means of numerical simulations, the coherent propagation of electrons in quantum wires and focus on the effect of the introduction of roughness along the channel. We study the electron evolution both in single and coupled quantum wires in the case where the electron freely move through the channel and in the case where transport is assisted by surface acoustic waves. It has been shown that systems of coupled quantum wires can realize a complete set of quantum logic gates.However, its physical implementation is severely limited by the spreading of the wave packet and by the presence of interface roughness. Our results show that the potential of the surface acoustic wave succeeds in confining the electron wavefunction and in driving it along the channels also when interface roughness is introduced. This suggests that electron transport assisted by surface acoustic waves could be a very efficient way to realize quantum solid state devices.