Electron mobility on a surface of dielectric media: influence of surface level atoms

TL;DR

This paper investigates how surface level atoms affect electron mobility on dielectric surfaces, providing a theoretical explanation for observed temperature-dependent behaviors, especially at low temperatures, and aligning well with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed calculation of SLA contributions to electron scattering, improving understanding of surface electron mobility in helium systems.

Findings

SLA significantly influence electron scattering at low temperatures.

The model explains temperature dependence of surface electron mobility.

Agreement with experimental data on helium surface electron behavior.

Abstract

We calculate the contribution to the electron scattering rate from the surface level atoms (SLA), proposed in [A.M. Dyugaev, P.D. Grigoriev, JETP Lett. 78, 466 (2003)]. The inclusion of these states into account was sufficient to explain the long-standing puzzles in the temperature dependence of the surface tension of both He isotopes and to reach a very good agreement between theory and experiment. We calculate the contribution from these SLA to the surface electron scattering rate and explain some features in the temperature dependence of the surface electron mobility. This contribution is essential at low temperature $T<0.5$ when the He vapor concentration is exponentially small. For an accurate calculation of the electron mobility one also needs to consider the influence of the clamping electric field on the surface electron wave function and the temperature dependence of the He3 chemical potential.