Recursive Green's function method for multi-terminal nanostructures

We present and review an efficient method to calculate the retarded Green's function in multi-terminal nanostructures; which is needed in order to calculate the conductance through the system and the local particle densities within it. The method uses the recursive Green's function method after the discretized Hamilton matrix has been properly partitioned. We show that this method, the circular slicing scheme, can be modified to accommodate multi-terminal systems as well as the traditional two-terminal systems. Furthermore, we show that the performance and robustness of the circular slicing scheme is on par with other advanced methods and is well suited for large variety of multi-terminal geometries. We end by giving an example of how the method can be used to calculate transport in a non-trivial multi-terminal geometry. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.