Temperature-dependent Drude transport in a two-dimensional electron gas

D. S. Novikov

Published 2008-10-23, updated 2009-06-11Version 2

We consider transport of dilute two-dimensional electrons, with temperature between Fermi and Debye temperatures. In this regime, electrons form a nondegenerate plasma with mobility limited by potential disorder. Different kinds of impurities contribute unique signatures to the resulting temperature-dependent Drude conductivity, via energy-dependent scattering. This opens up a way to characterize sample disorder composition. In particular, neutral impurities cause a slow decrease in conductivity with temperature, whereas charged impurities result in conductivity growing as a square root of temperature. This observation serves as a precaution for literally interpreting metallic or insulating conductivity dependence, as both can be found in a classical metallic system.