Disorder effects on the drag rate in double-quantum-wire systems

Abstract

We study the Coulomb drag rate for electrons in a double-quantum-wire structure in the presence of disorder. The particle-number-conserving relaxation-time approximation is used to phenomenologically broaden the response functions in the drag rate to account for the disorder effects. The interplay between the screening effects and disorder at high temperature yields a nonmonotone behavior of the drag rate on the disorder parameter. The reduction in the interwire momentum transfer rate may be used as a probe to investigate localization properties of coupled quantum wires. © 1998 The American Physical Society.