Binuka Gunawardana

Coherent backscattering in quasi-ballistic ultra-high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2DES

A small and narrow negative-magnetoresistance (MR) effect that appears about null magnetic field over the interval −0.025 ≤ B ≤ 0.025 T in magnetotransport studies of the GaAs/AlGaAs 2D system with μ ≈ 107cm2/Vs is experimentally examined as a function of the sample temperature, T. The temperature dependent magnetoresistance data were fit using the Hikami et al. theory, without including the spin-orbit correction, to extract the inelastic length, li, which decreases rapidly with increasing temperature. It turns out that li < le, where le is the elastic length, for all T. Thus, we measured the single particle lifetime, τs, and the single particle mean free path ls = vFτs. A comparison between li and ls indicates that li > ls. The results suggest that the observed small and narrow magnetoresistance effect about null magnetic field could be a manifestation of coherent backscattering due to small angle scattering from remote ionized donors in the high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2DES.