We study a new mechanism of wave/electron scattering in multi-mode surface-corrugated waveguides/wires. This mechanism is due to specific square-gradient terms in an effective Hamiltonian describing the surface scattering, that were neglected in all previous studies. With a careful analysis of the role of roughness slopes in a surface profile, we show that these terms strongly contribute to the expression for the inverse attenuation length (mean free path), provided the correlation length of corrugations is relatively small. The analytical results are illustrated by numerical data.

This paper presents an analytical study of the coexistence of different transport regimes in quasi-one-dimensional surface-disordered waveguides (or electron conductors). To elucidate main features of surface scattering, the case of two open modes (channels) is considered in great detail. Main attention is paid to the transmission in dependence on various parameters of the model with two types of rough-surface profiles (symmetric and antisymmetric). It is shown that depending on the symmetry, basic mechanisms of scattering can be either enhanced or suppressed. As a consequence, different transport regimes can be realized. Specifically, in the two-mode waveguide with symmetric rough boundaries, there are ballistic, localized and coexistence transport regimes. In the waveguide with antisymmetric roughness of lateral walls, another regime of the diffusive transport can arise. Our study allows to reveal the interplay between all relevant scattering mechanisms, in particular, the role of the so-called square-gradient scattering which is typically neglected in literature, however, can give a strong impact to the transmission.

We study the effect of surface scattering on transport properties in many-mode conducting channels (electron waveguides). Assuming a strong roughness of the surface profiles, we show that there are two independent control parameters that determine statistical properties of the scattering.The first parameter is the ratio of the amplitude of the roughness to the transverse width of the waveguide. The second one, which is typically omitted, is determined by the mean value of the derivative of the profile. This parameter may be large, thus leading to specific properties of scattering. Our results may be used in experimental realizations of the surface scattering of electron waves, as well as for other applications (e.g., for optical and microwave waveguides).

We develop a perturbative approach that allows one to study surface scattering in quasi-one-dimensional waveguides with rough boundaries. Our approach is based on the construction of an effective "bulk" potential of a very complicated structure. A detailed analysis of this potential reveals that apart from well-known terms considered in previous studies, one should keep specific terms that depend on the square of the derivative of the boundaries. As was found, in spite of an apparent smallness of these square-gradient scattering ͑SGS͒ terms, there is a physically important region of parameters in which they cannot be neglected. Our approach also demonstrates that the contribution of the SGS mechanism of scattering strongly depends on the type of rough boundaries ͑uncorrelated, symmetric, or antisymmetric͒.

We investigate the interplay between amplitude and square-gradient scattering from the rough surfaces in multi-mode waveguides (conducting quantum wires). The main result is that for any (even small in height) roughness the square-gradient terms in the expression for the wave scattering length (electron mean free path) are dominant, provided the correlation length of the surface disorder is small enough. This important effect is missed in existing studies of the surface scattering.