Comment on "Low-Density Spin Susceptibility and Effective Mass of Mobile Electrons in Si Inversion Layers"

Abstract

In a recent Letter (PRL 88, 196404 (2002)), the effective g-factor and the effective mass have been studied by Pudalov et al. in a dilute 2D electron system in silicon. The authors contrast their data with the data obtained by our group (Shashkin et al., PRL 87, 086801 (2001)) and claim that the spin susceptibility "increases gradually with decreasing density", which "does not support the occurrence of spontaneous spin polarization and divergence of gm..." The purpose of this Comment is to show that all available experimental data, including those of Pudalov et al., are consistent with each other and are in favor of a spontaneous spin polarization and divergence of gm at a finite electron density in this 2D system.