Giant Fluctuations of Coulomb Drag in a Bilayer System

A. S. Price, A. K. Savchenko, B. N. Narozhny, G. Allison, D. A. Ritchie

Published 2007-04-10Version 1

We have observed reproducible fluctuations of the Coulomb drag, both as a function of magnetic field and electron concentration, which are a manifestation of quantum interference of electrons in the layers. At low temperatures the fluctuations exceed the average drag, giving rise to random changes of the sign of the drag. The fluctuations are found to be much larger than previously expected, and we propose a model which explains their enhancement by considering fluctuations of local electron properties.