Reconciling Experiment and Theory/Computation 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 computational and experimental methods have been developed in the last 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 computational studies. First, I develop a theory for extracting new information from existing experimental conductance data. Second, I diagnose a cause for the computational tendency to overestimate electron transport properties. These contributions help to reconcile experiment and computation, allowing a more thorough understanding of electron transport processes.