Screening and transport in 2D semiconductor systems at low temperatures

Abstract

Low temperature carrier transport properties in two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor systems can be theoretically well-understood within a mean-field type RPA-Boltzmann theory as being limited by scattering from screened Coulomb disorder arising from random quenched charged impurities in the environment. In the current work, we derive a number of simple analytical formula, supported by realistic numerical calculations, for the relevant density, mobility, and temperature range where 2D transport should manifest strong intrinsic (i.e., arising purely from electronic effects and not from phonon scattering) metallic temperature dependence in different semiconductor materials arising entirely from the 2D screening properties, thus providing an explanation for why the strong temperature dependence of the 2D resistivity can only be observed in high-quality and low-disorder (i.e., high-mobility) 2D samples and also why some high-quality 2D materials (i.e., n-GaAs) manifest much weaker metallicity than other materials. We also discuss effects of interaction and disorder on the 2D screening properties in this context as well as compare 2D and 3D screening functions to comment why such a strong intrinsic temperature dependence arising from screening cannot occur in 3D metallic carrier transport. Experimentally verifiable predictions are made about the quantitative magnitude of the maximum possible low-temperature metallicity in 2D systems and the scaling behavior of the temperature scale controlling the quantum to classical crossover where the system reverses the sign of the temperature derivative of the 2D resistivity at high temperatures.

17 pages and 8 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1401.4762

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• Disorder induced 2D metal-insulator transition in moiré transition metal dichalcogenide multilayers
• Strange metallicity of moiré twisted bilayer graphene
• Electronic transport, metal-insulator transition, and Wigner crystallization in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers
• Density-tuned effective metal-insulator transitions in 2D semiconductor layers: Anderson localization or Wigner crystallization
• Understanding disorder in Silicon quantum computing platforms: Scattering mechanisms in Si/SiGe quantum wells
• Planckian properties of 2D semiconductor systems
• A Criterion for Strange Metallicity in the Lorenz Ratio
• Anderson localization crossover in 2D Si systems: The past and the present
• Apparent Kondo effect in Moiré TMD bilayers: Heavy fermions or disorder?
• Valley polarization transition in a two-dimensional electron gas
• Ultraclean two-dimensional hole systems with mobilities exceeding 10${}^7$ cm${}^2$/Vs
• Electronic structure of boron and aluminum $\delta$-doped layers in silicon
• Chirality relaxation in low-temperature strongly Rashba-coupled systems
• Exciton-Enhanced Superconductivity in Monolayer Films of Aluminum
• Gyromagnetic ratio and Pauli form factor in anisotropic QED${}_{2+1}$ at one-loop
• Temperature dependent resistivity in the doped two dimensional metallic phase of mTMD bilayers