Coexistence of Anderson and geometric-type localization of current carriers in multimode wires with surface disorder

Abstract

A new mechanism of electron localization in quantum wires with randomly rough side boundaries is revealed, which is coexistent with conventional Anderson localization and is not related to the disorder per se. The mechanism is due to the asperity slope, and we managed to show that even small in height but sufficiently sharpened asperities can modify substantially the current carrier spectrum so that the current flowing across rather wide and relatively short wires can even be entirely blocked.