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Electron liquids and solids in one dimension

Nature volume 464, pages 209–216 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Even though bulk metallic systems contain a very large number of strongly interacting electrons, their properties are well described within Landau's Fermi liquid theory of non-interacting quasiparticles. Although many higher-dimensional systems can be successfully understood on the basis of such non-interacting theories, this is not possible for one-dimensional systems. When confined to narrow channels, electron interaction gives rise to such exotic phenomena as spin–charge separation and the emergence of correlated-electron insulators. Such strongly correlated electronic behaviour has recently been seen in experiments on one-dimensional carbon nanotubes and nanowires, and this behaviour challenges the theoretical description of such systems.

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Figure 1: Power-law behaviour of electron tunnelling with energy for molybdenum selenide wires of various diameters.
Figure 2: Momentum-resolved tunnelling spectroscopy using two parallel wires.
Figure 3: Probing spin–charge separation and charge fractionalization in interacting 1D wires using momentum-resolved tunnelling spectroscopy.
Figure 4: Spreading of charge on tunnelling into an interacting wire.
Figure 5: Effects of the finite mass of particles forming the nonlinear Luttinger liquid.
Figure 6: Charges at low densities in a carbon nanotube form a 1D Wigner crystal.
Figure 7: Electron correlations in 1D carbon nanotubes give rise to insulating gaps.

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Acknowledgements

A.Y. and L.I.G. acknowledge a discussion with B. I. Halperin of the difference between charge fractionalization and quantization. L.I.G. acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Materials Research (grant no. DMR-0906498) and the Nanosciences Foundation at Grenoble, France. M.B. acknowledges the US Office of Naval Research. A.Y. is supported by the NSF under contract DMR.0707484.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, 10027, New York, USA

    Vikram V. Deshpande

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, 92521, California, USA

    Marc Bockrath

  3. Departments of Physics and Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, 06520, Connecticut, USA

    Leonid I. Glazman

  4. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Amir Yacoby

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Deshpande, V., Bockrath, M., Glazman, L. et al. Electron liquids and solids in one dimension. Nature 464, 209–216 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08918

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