1992/12/09 by Lian Zheng, A. H. MacDonald · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #cond-mat
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.47.10619
14 pages, 5 Fig. not included, revtex, IUcm92-005
arxiv created 1992/12/09 · openalex publication_date 1993/04/15 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2020/05/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We derive and evaluate expressions for the low temperature \it dc equilibrium tunneling conductance between parallel two-dimensional electron systems. Our theory is based on a linear-response formalism and on impurity-averaged perturbation theory. The disorder broadening of features in the dependence of tunneling conductance on sheet densities and in-plane magnetic field strengths is influenced both by the finite lifetime of electrons within the wells and by non-momentum-conserving tunneling events. Disorder vertex corrections are important only for weak in-plane magnetic fields and strong interwell impurity-potential correlations. We comment on the basis of our results on the possibility of using tunneling measurements to determine the lifetime of electrons in the quantum wells.