arXiv · cond-mat/0506812
Localization Transition in a Ballistic Quantum Wire
Abstract
The many-body wave-function of an interacting one-dimensional electron system is probed, focusing on the low-density, strong interaction regime. The properties of the wave-function are determined using tunneling between two long, clean, parallel quantum wires in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure, allowing for gate-controlled electron density. As electron density is lowered to a critical value the many-body state abruptly changes from an extended state with a well-defined momentum to a localized state with a wide range of momentum components. The signature of the localized states appears as discrete tunneling features at resonant gate-voltages, corresponding to the depletion of single electrons and showing Coulomb-blockade behavior. Typically 5-10 such features appear, where the one-electron state has a single-lobed momentum distribution, and the few-electron states have double-lobed distributions with peaks at $\pm k_F$. A theoretical model suggests that for a small number of particles (N<6), the observed state is a mixture of ground and thermally excited spin states.
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H. Steinberg, O. M. Auslaender, A. Yacoby, J. Qian, G. A. Fiete, Y. Tserkovnyak, B. I. Halperin, K. W. Baldwin, L. N. Pfeiffer, K. W. West. 2005-06-30. Localization Transition in a Ballistic Quantum Wire. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.73.113307
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