Transport through a small interacting system

We study the effect of nonlinear interaction, and finite coupling, V₀, to the leads on the transmission properties of a finite 1D chain of N atoms. The two-probe dc conductance, G, through a finite interacting chain connected to reservoirs is studied both in the T=0 and T≠0 cases. At T=0 we observe that, for E=0, perfect transmission occurs for odd values of N while for even N, the transmission reaches its minimum value. This results in an even-odd oscillatory behavior which becomes suppressed at higher temperatures. The two-probe conductance is also seen to be drastically reduced when the strength of the nonlinear interaction, U, is of the order of the inter-site coupling.