J M Shilton et al 1996 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 8 L531 doi:10.1088/0953-8984/8/38/001
J M Shilton, V I Talyanskii, M Pepper, D A Ritchie, J E F Frost, C J B Ford, C G Smith and G A C Jones
Show affiliationsWe report on an experimental investigation of the direct current induced by transmitting a surface acoustic wave (SAW) with frequency 2.7 GHz through a quasi-one-dimensional (1D) channel defined in a GaAs - AlGaAs heterostructure by a split gate, when the SAW wavelength was approximately equal to the channel length. At low SAW power levels the current reveals oscillatory behaviour as a function of the gate voltage with maxima between the plateaux of quantized 1D conductance. At high SAW power levels, an acoustoelectric current was observed at gate voltages beyond pinch-off. In this region the current displays a step-like behaviour as a function of the gate voltage (or of the SAW power) with the magnitude corresponding to the transfer of one electron per SAW cycle. We interpret this as due to trapping of electrons in the moving SAW-induced potential minima with the number of electrons in each minimum being controlled by the electron - electron interactions. As the number of electrons is reduced, the classical Coulomb charging energy becomes the Mott - Hubbard gap between two electrons and finally the system becomes a sliding Mott insulator with one electron in each well.
72.30.+q High-frequency effects; plasma effects
72.50.+b Acoustoelectric effects
73.40.Kp III-V semiconductor-to-semiconductor contacts, p-n junctions, and heterojunctions
Issue 38 (16 September 1996)
Received 2 August 1996
J M Shilton et al 1996 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 8 L531
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