  We show that the imaginary part of the embedding potential, a generalised
logarithmic derivative, defined over the interface between an electrical lead
and some conductor, has orthogonal eigenfunctions which define conduction
channels into and out of the lead. In the case of an infinitely extended
interface we establish the relationship between these eigenfunctions and the
Bloch states evaluated over the interface. Using the new channel functions, a
well-known result for the total transmission through the conductor system is
simply derived.
