New evidence for the Wigner crystal

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A classical system of electrons will form a crystalline state at zero temperature. A quantum system of electrons, on the other hand, is generally expected to form a uniform-density electron gas at zero temperature because of the kinetic energy cost of localising electrons onto lattice sites required by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In 1934, Wigner predicted that an electron gas would crystallise into a solid at low temperatures and low densities even if quantum effects were important. The classical 'Wigner crystal' has been observed for electrons trapped on the surface of liquid helium but searches for its quantum cousin in doped bulk semiconductors and in the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) formed in semiconductor inversion layers have not previously yielded definitive results. (Quantum effects become important when the temperature falls below the Fermi (degeneracy) temperature of the gas.)

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: