Umklapp-assisted electron transport oscillations in metal superlattices

作者:Kulinich S I*; Gorelik L Y; Gredeskul S A; Shekhter R I; Jonson M
来源:Physical Review B, 2012, 85(18): 184202.
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.85.184202

摘要

We consider a superlattice of parallel metal tunnel junctions with a spatially nonhomogeneous probability for electrons to tunnel. In such structures tunneling can be accompanied by electron scattering that conserves energy but not momentum. In the special case of a tunneling probability that varies periodically with period a in the longitudinal direction, i.e., perpendicular to the junctions, electron tunneling is accompanied by umklapp scattering, where the longitudinal momentum changes by a multiple of h/a. We predict that as a result a sequence of metal-insulator transitions can be induced by an external electric or magnetic field as the field strength is increased.

  • 出版日期2012-5-3

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