Drag of ballistic electrons by an ion beam

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a beam of ions can exert a drag force on electrons in a 1D ballistic nanowire, revealing nonmonotonic behavior useful for nanostructure spectroscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model for ion beam-induced electron drag in 1D nanowires and predicts nonmonotonic drag current dependence on ion velocity.

Findings

Drag current peaks near half the Fermi velocity of electrons.

Drag effect is nonmonotonic with respect to ion velocity.

Potential application in ballistic nanostructure spectroscopy.

Abstract

Drag of electrons of 1D ballistic nanowire by a nearby 1D beam of ions is considered. We assume that the ion beam is represented by an ensemble of heavy ions of the same velocity $\bf V$. The ratio of the drag current to primary current carried by the ion beam is calculated. The drag current appears to be a nonmonotonic function of velocity $V$, it has maxima for $V$ near $v_{nF}/2$ where $n$ is the number of electron miniband (channel) and $v_{nF}$ is the corresponding Fermi velocity. This means that the ion beam drag can be applied for ballistic nanostructure spectroscopy.