Diffraction in the semiclassical description of mesoscopic devices

In pseudo-integrable systems, diffractive scattering caused by wedges and impurities can be described within the framework of the Geometric Theory of Diffraction (GDT) in a way similar to the one used in the Periodic Orbit Theory of Diffraction (POTD). We derive formulas expressing the reflection and transition matrix elements for one and many diffractive points and apply it for impurity and wedge diffraction. Diffraction can cause backscattering in situations where usual semiclassical backscattering is absent causing an erodation of ideal conductance steps. The length of diffractive periodic orbits and diffractive loops can be detected in the power spectrum of the reflection matrix elements. The tail of the power spectrum shows similar to 1/l(1/2) decay due to impurity scattering and similar to 1/l(3/2) decay due to wedge scattering. We think this is a universal sign of the presence of diffractive scattering in pseudo-integrable waveguides. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.