Electron-electron scattering and conductivity of long multimode channels

Abstract

The electron-electron scattering increases the resistance of ballistic many-mode channels whose width is smaller than their length. We show that this increase saturates in the limit of infinitely long channels. Because the mechanisms of angular relaxation of electrons in three and two dimensions are different, the saturation value of the correction to the resistance is temperature-independent in the case of three-dimensional channels and is proportional to the temperature for two-dimensional ones. The spatial behavior of electron distribution in the latter case is described by an unusual characteristic length.