Probing Spin-Charge Separation in a Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid
Abstract
In a one-dimensional (1D) system of interacting electrons, excitations of spin and charge travel at different speeds, according to the theory of a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) at low energies. However, the clear observation of this spin-charge separation is an ongoing challenge experimentally. We have fabricated an electrostatically gated 1D system in which we observe spin-charge separation and also the predicted power-law suppression of tunneling into the 1D system. The spin-charge separation persists even beyond the low-energy regime where the TLL approximation should hold. TLL effects should therefore also be important in similar, but shorter, electrostatically gated wires, where interaction effects are being studied extensively worldwide.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- July 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1171769
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1002.2782
- Bibcode:
- 2009Sci...325..597J
- Keywords:
-
- PHYSICS;
- Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons;
- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 4 PDF figures, uses scicite.sty, Science.bst