Reconciling Experiment and Theory in Studies of Electron Transport

Electron transport has become an active research topic due to both the fundamental questions it raises and its applications to scanning probe microscopies, thermoelectrics, and molecular electronics. Although numerous theoretical and experimental methods have been developed in the last 10-15 years to study electron transport, comparisons of the two usually provide only qualitative agreement. In this talk, I discuss two recent steps to bridge experimental and theoretical studies. First, I develop a theory for extracting additional information from conductance histograms. Second, I diagnose a cause for the theoretical tendency to overestimate electron transport properties. These contributions help reconcile experiment and theory, allowing a more thorough understanding of electron transport processes.