Transport inefficiency in branched-out mesoscopic networks: an analog of the Braess paradox

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Feb 17;108(7):076802. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.076802. Epub 2012 Feb 13.

Abstract

We present evidence for a counterintuitive behavior of semiconductor mesoscopic networks that is the analog of the Braess paradox encountered in classical networks. A numerical simulation of quantum transport in a two-branch mesoscopic network reveals that adding a third branch can paradoxically induce transport inefficiency that manifests itself in a sizable conductance drop of the network. A scanning-probe experiment using a biased tip to modulate the transmission of one branch in the network reveals the occurrence of this paradox by mapping the conductance variation as a function of the tip voltage and position.