Unusual conductance collapse in one-dimensional quantum structures
arXiv:cond-mat/0406031 · doi:10.1088/0953-8984/16/23/L01
Abstract
We report an unusual insulating state in one-dimensional quantum wires with a non-uniform confinement potential. The wires consist of a series of closely spaced split gates in high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. At certain combinations of wire widths, the conductance abruptly drops over three orders of magnitude, to zero on a linear scale. Two types of collapse are observed, one occurring in multi-subband wires in zero magnetic field and one in single subband wires in an in-plane field. The conductance of the wire in the collapse region is thermally activated with an energy of the order of 1 K. At low temperatures, the conductance shows a steep rise beyond a threshold DC source-drain voltage of order 1 mV, indicative of a gap in the density of states. Magnetic depopulation measurements show a decrease in the carrier density with lowering temperature. We discuss these results in the context of many-body effects such as charge density waves and Wigner crystallization in quantum wires.
5 pages, 5 eps figures, revtex
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Cited by in corpus (4)
- Spin-charge separation and localization in one-dimension
- The effect of split gate size on the electrostatic potential and 0.7 anomaly within one-dimensional quantum wires on a modulation doped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure
- Finite doping of a one-dimensional charge density wave: solitons vs. Luttinger liquid charge density
- Disorder effect on the Friedel oscillations in a one-dimensional Mott insulator