kwant.solvers.default.smatrix

kwant.solvers.default.smatrix(sys, energy=0, args=(), out_leads=None, in_leads=None, check_hermiticity=True, *, params=None)

Compute the scattering matrix of a system.

An alias exists for this common name: kwant.smatrix.

Parameters

syskwant.system.FiniteSystem

Low level system, containing the leads and the Hamiltonian of a scattering region.

energynumber

Excitation energy at which to solve the scattering problem.

argstuple, defaults to empty

Positional arguments to pass to the hamiltonian method. Deprecated in favor of ‘params’ (and mutually exclusive with it).

out_leadssequence of integers or None

Numbers of leads where current or wave function is extracted. None is interpreted as all leads. Default is None and means “all leads”.

in_leadssequence of integers or None

Numbers of leads in which current or wave function is injected. None is interpreted as all leads. Default is None and means “all leads”.

check_hermiticitybool

Check if the Hamiltonian matrices are Hermitian. Enables deduction of missing transmission coefficients.

paramsdict, optional

Dictionary of parameter names and their values. Mutually exclusive with ‘args’.

Returns

outputSMatrix

See the notes below and SMatrix documentation.

Notes

This function can be used to calculate the conductance and other transport properties of a system. See the documentation for its output type, SMatrix.

The returned object contains the scattering matrix elements from the in_leads to the out_leads as well as information about the lead modes.

Both in_leads and out_leads must be sorted and may only contain unique entries.