Transport in nanostructures. Recent developments

The recent work on the transport through nanostructures is discussed. It turns out that such structures very often directly serve as monitoring and/or controlling devices. They enable us to study transport properties and many body effects in highly controlled conditions. The simplest configuration discussed in the paper consists of a quantum dot (QD) connected to two external electrodes via tunnel barriers. Another important goal of the recent studies is to use the electron spin instead of charge in modern electronic devices. For the realization of electronics with spins (called spintronics), a precise control and efficient monitoring of spins is necessary. One way of achieving the goal that is briefly discussed in the paper is by means of the electric field in the presence of spin-orbit coupling via the so-called spin Hall effect (SHE).