Improved performance in quantum transport calculations: A divide-and-conquer method based on S-matrices

Abstract

We propose a divide-and-conquer algorithm to find recursively the Scattering matrix of general tight-binding structures. The Scattering matrix allows a direct calculation of transport properties in mesoscopic systems by using the Landauer formula. The method is exact, and by analyzing the performance of the algorithm in square, triangular and honeycomb lattices, we show a significant improvement in comparison to other state-of-the-art recursive and non-recursive methods.