  We introduce a model for rectification in three-terminal ballistic
conductors, where the central connecting node is modeled as a chaotic cavity.
For bias voltages comparable to the Fermi energy, a strong nonlinearity is
created by the opening of a gap in the transport window. Both noninteracting
cavity electrons at arbitrary temperature as well as the hot electron regime
are considered. Charging effects are treated within the transmission formalism
using a self-consistent analysis. The conductance of the third lead in a
voltage probe configuration is varied to also model inelastic effects. We find
that the basic transport features are insensitive to all of these changes,
indicating that the nonlinearity is robust and well suited to applications such
as current rectification in ballistic systems. Our findings are in broad
agreement with several recent experiments.
