Interaction-induced beats of Friedel oscillations in quantum wires

Abstract

We analyze the spectrum of electron density oscillations in an interacting one-dimensional electron system with an impurity. The system's inhomogeneity is characterized by different values of Fermi wave vectors $k_F=k_{L/R}$ on left/right side of the scatterer, leading to a Landauer dipole formation. We demonstrate, that while in the noninteracting system the Friedel oscillations possess only one periodicity related to the local $k_F$, say $k_L$ on the left side, the interplay of the interactions and the Landauer dipole generates an additional peak in the spectrum of density oscillations at the counterpart $k_R$. Being only present in correlated systems, the position and shape of this spectral feature, which in coordinate space is observable as a beating pattern in the Friedel oscillations, reveals many important details about the nature of interactions. Thus it has a potential to become an investigation tool in condensed matter physics.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Interacting one dimensional electron gas with open boundaries
• Friedel oscillations for interacting fermions in one dimension
• Real Space Imaging of One-Dimensional Standing Waves: Direct Evidence for a Luttinger Liquid
• Exact Friedel oscillations in the g=1/2 Luttinger liquid
• Field emission from Luttinger liquids and single-wall carbon nanotubes

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Constraints on conductances for Y-junction of quantum wires
• Magnetic AC control of the spin textures in a helical Luttinger liquid
• Screening of a Luttinger liquid wire by a scanning tunneling microscope tip: I. Spectral properties
• Rectification in Y-junctions of Luttinger liquid wires
• Real-space dynamical mean-field theory of Friedel oscillations in strongly correlated electron systems