Abstract
We present a method to analyze the results of first-principles based calculations of electronic currents including inelastic electron-phonon effects. This method allows us to determine the electronic and vibrational symmetries in play, and hence to obtain the so-called propensity rules for the studied systems. We show that only a few scattering states—namely those belonging to the most transmitting eigenchannels—need to be considered for a complete description of the electron transport. We apply the method on first-principles calculations of four different systems and obtain the propensity rules in each case.
- Received 21 November 2007
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.226604
©2008 American Physical Society