We work out a theory of the Coulomb drag current created under the ballistic transport regime in a one-dimensional nanowire by a ballistic non-Ohmic current in a nearby parallel nanowire. As in the Ohmic case, we predict sharp oscillation of the drag current as a function of gate voltage or the chemical potential of electrons. We study also dependence of the drag current on the voltage V across the driving wire. For relatively large values of V the drag current is proportional to V^2.
The presence of pronounced electronic correlations in one-dimensional systems strongly enhances Coulomb coupling and is expected to result in distinctive features in the Coulomb drag between them that are absent in the drag between two-dimensional systems. We review recent Fermi and Luttinger liquid theories of Coulomb drag between ballistic one-dimensional electron systems, and give a brief summary of the experimental work reported so far on one-dimensional drag. Both the Fermi liquid (FL) and the Luttinger liquid (LL) theory predict a maximum of the drag resistance R_D when the one-dimensional subbands of the two quantum wires are aligned and the Fermi wave vector k_F is small, and also an exponential decay of R_D with increasing inter-wire separation, both features confirmed by experimental observations. A crucial difference between the two theoretical models emerges in the temperature dependence of the drag effect. Whereas the FL theory predicts a linear temperature dependence, the LL theory promises a rich and varied dependence on temperature depending on the relative magnitudes of the energy and length scales of the systems. At higher temperatures, the drag should show a power-law dependence on temperature, $R_D ~ T^x$, experimentally confirmed in a narrow temperature range, where x is determined by the Luttinger liquid parameters. The spin degree of freedom plays an important role in the LL theory in predicting the features of the drag effect and is crucial for the interpretation of experimental results.
We have investigated within the theory of Fermi liquid dependence of Coulomb drag current in a passive quantum wire on the applied voltage $V$ across an active wire and on the temperature $T$ for any values of $eV/k_BT$. We assume that the bottoms of the 1D minibands in both wires almost coincide with the Fermi level. We come to conclusions that 1) within a certain temperature interval the drag current can be a descending function of the temperature $T$; 2) the experimentally observed temperature dependence $T^{-0.77}$ of the drag current can be interpreted within the framework of Fermi liquid theory; 3) at relatively high applied voltages the drag current as a function of the applied voltage saturates; 4) the screening of the electron potential by metallic gate electrodes can be of importance.
We report Coulomb drag measurements on GaAs-AlGaAs electron-hole bilayers. The two layers are separated by a 10 or 25nm barrier. Below T$approx$1K we find two features that a Fermi-liquid picture cannot explain. First, the drag on the hole layer shows an upturn, which may be followed by a downturn. Second, the effect is either absent or much weaker in the electron layer, even though the measurements are within the linear response regime. Correlated phases have been anticipated in these, but surprisingly, the experimental results appear to contradict Onsagers reciprocity theorem.
We theoretically study the inelastic scattering rate and the carrier mean free path for energetic hot electrons in graphene, including both electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions. Taking account of optical phonon emission and electron-electron scattering, we find that the inelastic scattering time $tau sim 10^{-2}-10^{-1} mathrm{ps}$ and the mean free path $l sim 10-10^2 mathrm{nm}$ for electron densities $n = 10^{12}-10^{13} mathrm{cm}^{-2}$. In particular, we find that the mean free path exhibits a finite jump at the phonon energy $200 mathrm{meV}$ due to electron-phonon interaction. Our results are directly applicable to device structures where ballistic transport is relevant with inelastic scattering dominating over elastic scattering.
We show that the Coulomb interaction between two circuits separated by an insulating layer leads to unconventional thermoelectric effects, such as the cooling by thermal current effect, the transverse thermoelectric effect and Maxwells demon effect. The first refers to cooling in one circuit induced by the thermal current in the other circuit. The middle represents electric power generation in one circuit by the temperature gradient in the other circuit. The physical picture of Coulomb drag between the two circuits is first demonstrated for the case with one quantum dot in each circuits and then elaborated for the case with two quantum dots in each circuits. In the latter case, the heat exchange between the two circuits can vanish. Last, we also show that the Maxwells demon effect can be realized in the four-terminal quantum dot thermoelectric system, in which the quantum system absorbs the heat from the high-temperature heat bath and releases the same heat to the low-temperature heat bath without any energy exchange with the two heat baths. Our study reveals the role of Coulomb interaction in non-local four-terminal thermoelectric transport.