Quantum master-equation approach to quantum transport through mesoscopic systems

For quantum transport through mesoscopic systems, a quantum master-equation approach is developed in terms of compact expressions for the transport current and the reduced density matrix of the system. The present work is an extension of Gurvitz’s approach for quantum transport and quantum measurement, namely, to finite temperature and arbitrary bias voltage. Our derivation starts from a second-order cumulant expansion of the tunneling Hamiltonian; then follows the conditional average over the electrode reservoir states. As a consequence, in the usual weak-tunneling regime, the established formalism is applicable for a wide range of transport problems. The validity of the formalism and its convenience in application are well illustrated by a number of examples.