Two-particle scattering and resistivity of Rashba electron gas

TL;DR

This paper investigates how two-particle collisions and Rashba spin-orbit coupling influence the electrical resistivity of a two-dimensional electron gas, revealing conditions under which temperature-dependent resistivity corrections occur.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of resistivity contributions from two-particle collisions in a Rashba electron gas, highlighting the impact of impurity scattering and band filling.

Findings

Two-particle collisions alone do not contribute to resistivity without impurities.

Resistivity correction is proportional to T^2 when only the lower helicity band is filled.

The T^2 term vanishes if the Fermi level is above the Dirac point.

Abstract

We calculate the electrical resistivity of a two-dimensional electron gas that results from two-particle collisions and strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling. In the absence of impurities, two-particle collisions do not contribute to resistivity. When combined with impurity scattering, the two-particle correction to the resistivity is proportional to the square of temperature $T$ if only the lower helicity band is filled, but the $T^2$ term vanishes if the Fermi level is above the Dirac point.