Conductivity of a spin-polarized two-dimensional electron liquid in the ballistic regime

TL;DR

This study investigates how the conductivity of a spin-polarized two-dimensional electron liquid in silicon varies with temperature and spin polarization in the ballistic regime, revealing non-monotonic behavior and insights into underlying theories.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of non-monotonic conductivity dependence on spin polarization and distinguishes between screening and interaction theories.

Findings

Conductivity changes non-monotonically with spin polarization.

Conductivity vanishes near full spin polarization and reappears in the fully polarized state.

Analysis supports differentiation between screening and interaction-based models.

Abstract

In the ballistic regime, the metallic temperature dependence of the conductivity in a two-dimensional electron system in silicon is found to change non-monotonically with the degree of spin polarization. In particular, it fades away just before the onset of complete spin polarization but reappears again in the fully spin-polarized state, being, however, suppressed relative to the zero-field case. Analysis of the degree of the suppression allows one to distinguish between the screening and the interaction-based theories.