Surface electron mobility over a helium film

Abstract

The mobility of surface electrons localized over helium films underlying solid substrates has been evaluated by solving the Boltzmann equation in the time relaxation approximation and the force balance equation in which an effective mobility is obtained in terms of the dynamical structure factor of the nondegenerate electron liquid. The essential processes of electron scattering by gas atoms, ripplons, and film-solid interface roughness are taken into account. The electron mobility dependence on the film thickness and temperature is determined and compared with experimental data available. We find that the interface-roughness scattering is the dominant process for explaining the experimental results. We estimate the extended defect sizes of the underlying substrate within the Gaussian correlated model for interface roughness.