An investigation of quantum transport by the free-electron network model: Resonance and interference effects

Quantum coherent transport through a multiply-connected network is investigated by the free-electron network model (FENM). Within this model, we study π-conjugated molecules such as benzenedithiol (BDT) in order to understand the influence of nontrivial topological structures on the transport behavior. The analytical solutions for transmission functions and I-V characteristics of the simplest networked conjugated molecules are derived. Moreover, quantum effects such as resonance and interference are clearly revealed in this approach. We have also compared our FENM approach with the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) method within tight-binding calculation.