Coulomb Drag Between Parallel Ballistic Quantum Wires

Abstract

The Coulomb drag between parallel, {\it ballistic} quantum wires is studied theoretically in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field B. The transresistance R_D shows peaks as a function of the Fermi level and splitting energy between the 1D subbands of the wires. The sharpest peaks appear when the Fermi level crosses the subband extrema so that the Fermi momenta are small. Two other kinds of peaks appear when either {\it intra}- or {\it inter}-subband transitions of electrons have maximum probability; the {\it intra}-subband transitions correspond to a small splitting energy. R_D depends on the field B in a nonmonotonic fashion: it decreases with B, as a result of the suppression of backscattering, and increases sharply when the Fermi level approaches the subband bottoms and the suppression is outbalanced by the increase of the Coulomb matrix elements and of the density of states.