Effect of Intersubband Impurity Scattering on the Anderson Localization in Two Dimensional Electron Systems

Abstract

Effect of intersubband impurity scattering on the Anderson localization is studied in the weakly localized regime of two dimensional electron systems. It is shown that it changes not only the prefactor of the quantum correction of conductivity, but also the diffusion constant, depending on the ratio of the intersubband scattering time to the inelastic scattering time. The crossover behavior in magnetoconductivity from one-subband occupation to two-subband occupation is also studied. Since it varies depending on various scattering times, details of scattering processes can be determined for an arbitrary electron density by fitting experimental observations to theoretical expressions. Experimental determination of the inelastic scattering time without considering this effect leads to an incorrect estimation.