Eur. Phys. J. B 24, 525-540 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10051-001-8706-1

Coherent transport in disordered metals out of equilibrium

¹ Institut für Physik, Universität Augsburg, 86135 Augsburg, Germany
² NEST-INFM e Dipartimento di Fisica "E. Amaldi" , Università di Roma 3, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a peter.schwab@physik.uni-augsburg.de

Received: 13 June 2001
Published online: 15 December 2001

Abstract

We derive a formula for the quantum corrections to the electrical current for a metal out of equilibrium. In the limit of linear current-voltage characteristics our formula reproduces the well known Altshuler-Aronov correction to the conductivity of a disordered metal. The current formula is obtained by a direct diagrammatic approach, and is shown to agree with what is obtained within the Keldysh formulation of the non-linear sigma model. As an application we calculate the current of a mesoscopic wire. We find a current-voltage characteristics that scales with eV/kT, and calculate the different scaling curves for a wire in the hot-electron regime and in the regime of full non-equilibrium.