Surface acoustic wave attenuation by a two-dimensional electron gas in a strong magnetic field

Abstract

The propagation of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) on GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures is studied in the case where the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is subject to a strong magnetic field and a smooth random potential with correlation length Lambda and amplitude Delta. The electron wave functions are described in a quasiclassical picture using results of percolation theory for two-dimensional systems. In accordance with the experimental situation, Lambda is assumed to be much smaller than the sound wavelength 2*pi/q. This restricts the absorption of surface phonons at a filling factor \bar{\nu} approx 1/2 to electrons occupying extended trajectories of fractal structure. Both piezoelectric and deformation potential interactions of surface acoustic phonons with electrons are considered and the corresponding interaction vertices are derived. These vertices are found to differ from those valid for three-dimensional bulk phonon systems with respect to the phonon wave vector dependence. We derive the appropriate dielectric function varepsilon(omega,q) to describe the effect of screening on the electron-phonon coupling. In the low temperature, high frequency regime T << Delta (omega_q*Lambda /v_D)^{alpha/2/nu}, where omega_q is the SAW frequency and v_D is the electron drift velocity, both the attenuation coefficient Gamma and varepsilon(omega,q) are independent of temperature. The classical percolation indices give alpha/2/nu=3/7. The width of the region where a strong absorption of the SAW occurs is found to be given by the scaling law |Delta \bar{\nu}| approx (omega_q*Lambda/v_D)^{alpha/2/nu}. The dependence of the electron-phonon coupling and the screening due to the 2DEG on the filling factor leads to a double-peak structure for Gamma(\bar{\nu}).