Publications

Electron Turbulence at Nanoscale Junctions

Bushong, Neil B.; Gamble, John K.; Di Ventra, Massimiliano D.

Electron transport through a nanostructure can be characterized in part using concepts from classical fluid dynamics. Hence, it is natural to ask how far the analogy can be taken and whether the electron liquid can exhibit nonlinear dynamical effects such as turbulence. Here we present an ab initio study of the electron dynamics in nanojunctions which reveals that the latter indeed exhibits behavior quite similar to that of a classical fluid. In particular, we find that a transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs with increasing current, corresponding to increasing Reynolds numbers. These findings reveal unexpected features of electron dynamics and shed new light on our understanding of transport properties of nanoscale systems.