Memory Effects in the Electron Glass

TL;DR

This paper models the slow relaxation and memory effects in electron glasses, showing how disorder, interactions, and finite size influence dynamics, with implications for experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a self-consistent dynamical model that captures experimental behaviors and reveals a finite size 'domino' effect impacting relaxation in mesoscopic systems.

Findings

Logarithmic relaxation behavior matches experiments

Increased disorder or interactions slow down relaxation

Finite size effects can accelerate relaxation and reverse interaction effects

Abstract

We investigate theoretically the slow non-exponential relaxation dynamics of the electron glass out of equilibrium, where a sudden change in carrier density reveals interesting memory effects. The self-consistent model of the dynamics of the occupation numbers in the system successfully recovers the general behavior found in experiments. Our numerical analysis is consistent with both the expected logarithmic relaxation and our understanding of how increasing disorder or interaction slows down the relaxation process, thus yielding a consistent picture of the electron glass. We also present a novel finite size "domino" effect where the connection to the leads affects the relaxation process of the electron glass in mesoscopic systems. This effect speeds up the relaxation process, and even reverses the expected effect of interaction; stronger interaction then leading to a faster relaxation.