Optical analogue structures to mesoscopic devices

Optical analogues of several mesoscopic structures are presented. Classical or quantum optical analogies are found for tunnelling mesoscopic devices in the electron ballistic regime, for quantum interference devices, quantum wells with nonlinear effects, and for the electron spin operator. Mesoscopic set-ups analogous to optical set-ups for classical optical experiments, interaction-free imaging and quantum computing are also presented. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.