Single-particle spectrum of a dilute 2D electron gas

Single-particle spectra of a homogeneous 2D electron gas have been calculated in the microscopic functional approach. The effective mass in this system is found to diverge at r _s ? 7. It is shown that the inclusion of the local exchange and correlation corrections to the effective interaction modifies the instability picture from that obtained in the random phase approximation: in the latter, the instability arises away from the Fermi surface, whereas, with the introduction of the corrections, it manifests itself as the divergence of the effective mass.     

Coulomb scattering in a 2D interacting electron gas and production of EPR pairs

We propose a setup to generate nonlocal spin Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen pairs via pair collisions in a 2D interacting electron gas, based on constructive two-particle interference in the spin-singlet channel at the pi/2 scattering angle. We calculate the scattering amplitude via the Bethe-Salpeter equation in the ladder approximation and small r(s) limit and find that the Fermi sea leads to a substantial renormalization of the bare scattering process. From the scattering length, we estimate the current of spin-entangled electrons and show that it is within experimental reach.     

Magnetic moment of a 2D electron gas with spin-orbit interaction

An explicit analytic expression is derived for the magnetic moment of a 2D electron gas taking into account the spin-orbit interaction in the Rashba model with T = 0. The cases of constant chemical potential and number of electrons are investigated. The magnetic field and temperature dependences of the magnetic moment are analyzed. The results are compared with the results of experimental studies of magnetization.     

Magnetoquantum transport in a modulated 2D electron gas with spin-orbit interaction

We investigate the effects of spin-orbit interaction (SOI) and plane-perpendicular magnetic field on the conductivity of a two-dimensional electron system in the presence of one-dimensional electrostatic modulation. The calculations are performed when a low-intensity, low-frequency external electric field is applied. The Kubo formula for the conductivity is employed in the calculation. The single-particle eigenstates which depend on the strengths of the magnetic field, the SOI and modulation potential, are calculated and then used to determine the conductivity. We present numerical results for the conductivity along the channels as well as the tunneling conductivity perpendicular to the constrictions as functions of the modulation potential, the SOI and the magnetic field. We demonstrate that the effect of finite frequency is to related to the reduction of both the longitudinal and transverse conductivities.     

Magnetic field induced transitions between quantized hall and insulator states in a dilute 2D electron gas

We report on the observation of a new phenomenon: a sequence of magnetic field induced transitions between well defined quantum Hall effect states, with a Hall resistance quantized as integer fractions of h/e² and a vanishingly small longitudinal resistance, and insulator states with longitudinal resistance exceeding 2×10⁹ Ω. This phenomenon is observed in extremely high mobility Si MOSFETs, in a range of electron concentrations corresponding to a dilute 2D electron gas in or near an activated electronic transport regime. We attribute this effect to a modulation of the metal-insulator transition by the quantum Hall effect or to the formation of a pinned Wigner solid.     

On the Coulomb energy of a finite-temperature electron gas

We rederive the Coulomb expansion of the electron gas average energy at finite temperature, starting from scratch, i.e., using only the framework of the grand canonical ensemble and not the finite-T Green's function formalism. We recover the analytical expressions of the exchange and correlation energy in both the high-T and theT=0 limits. We explicitly show the origin of the crossover of the correlation energy leading term frome ⁴ lne ² at zero temperature toe ³ at finiteT. We also discuss the relative importance of exchange and correlation in both limits.     

Radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in a 2D electron gas

Recent measurements of a 2D electron gas subjected to microwave radiation reveal a magnetoresistance with an oscillatory dependence on the ratio of radiation frequency to cyclotron frequency. We perform a diagrammatic calculation and find radiation-induced resistivity oscillations with the correct period and phase. Results are explained via a simple picture of current induced by photoexcited disorder-scattered electrons. The oscillations increase with radiation intensity, easily exceeding the dark resistivity and resulting in negative-resistivity minima. At high intensity, we identify additional features, likely due to multiphoton processes, which have yet to be observed experimentally.     

Spin-independent origin of the strongly enhanced effective mass in a dilute 2D electron system

We accurately measure the effective mass in a dilute two-dimensional electron system in silicon by analyzing the temperature dependence of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the low-temperature limit. A sharp increase of the effective mass with decreasing electron density is observed. We find that the enhanced effective mass is independent of the degree of spin polarization, which points to a spin-independent origin of the mass enhancement and is in contradiction with existing theories.     

Droplet state and the compressibility anomaly in dilute 2D electron systems

We investigate the space distribution of carrier density and the compressibility of two-dimensional (2D) electron systems by using the local density approximation. The strong correlation is simulated by the local exchange and correlation energies. A slowly varied disorder potential is applied to simulate the disorder effect. We show that the compressibility anomaly observed in 2D systems which accompanies the metal-insulator transition can be attributed to the formation of the droplet state due to a disorder effect at low carrier densities.     

Screening of the Coulomb field in a magnetized electron gas of a quantum cylinder

The quantum theory is constructed for screening of the Coulomb field of a point charge in a magnetized electron gas of a quantum cylinder. The asymptotics of the screened potential are calculated for both degenerate and Boltzmann electron gases. It is demonstrated that, in the degenerate case, apart from the known quasi-classical monotonic part, the result contains the quantum oscillating part, which corresponds to Friedel oscillations. The Aharonov-Bohm oscillations of the screened Coulomb interaction of electrons on a cylindrical surface are described analytically. It is shown that the Friedel oscillations can be represented as a superposition of oscillations with different frequencies which are determined by the macroscopic properties of the nanotube.     

Physics of the insulating phase in dilute two-dimensional electron gas

We propose to use the radiofrequency single-electron transistor as an extremely sensitive probe to detect the time-periodic ac signal generated by a sliding electron lattice in the insulating state of the two-dimensional electron gas. We also propose to use the optically-pumped NMR technique to probe the electron spin structure of the insulating state. We show that the electron effective mass and spin susceptibility are strongly enhanced by critical fluctuations of the electron lattice in the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition, as observed in experiment.     

Intersubband electron interaction in 1D–2D junctions

It is shown that the electron transport through junctions between one-and a two-dimensional systems and through quantum point contacts is considerably affected by the interaction of electrons belonging to different subbands. The interaction mechanism is related to Friedel oscillations, which are produced by the electrons of the closed subbands even in smooth transitions. Because of the interaction with these oscillations, electrons of the open subbands experience a backscattering. The electron reflection coefficient has a sharp peak at the energy equal to the Fermi energy and may reach a value of about 0.1. This result allows one to explain a number of available experimental facts.