Conductivity of a spin-polarized two-dimensional electron liquid in the ballistic regime

Abstract

In the ballistic regime, the metallic temperature dependence of the conductivity in a two-dimensional electron system in silicon is found to change non-monotonically with the degree of spin polarization. In particular, it fades away just before the onset of complete spin polarization but reappears again in the fully spin-polarized state, being, however, suppressed relative to the zero-field case. Analysis of the degree of the suppression allows one to distinguish between the screening and the interaction-based theories.