Non-equilibrium GW approach to quantum transport in nano-scale contacts

Abstract

Correlation effects within the GW approximation have been incorporated into the Keldysh non-equilibrium transport formalism. We show that GW describes the Kondo effect and the zero-temperature transport properties of the Anderson model fairly well. Combining the GW scheme with density functional theory and a Wannier function basis set, we illustrate the impact of correlations by computing the I-V characteristics of a hydrogen molecule between two Pt chains. Our results indicate that self-consistency is fundamental for the calculated currents, but that it tends to wash out satellite structures in the spectral function.