Investigation of the electric-field effect on weak localization using the balance-equation approach.

Abstract

The electric-field effect on weak localization is studied within the framework of the balance-equation theory. The frictional forces due to direct, lowest-order impurity scattering and all orders of singular impurity backscattering, as well as the energy-loss rate due to phonons, are calculated by the use of the Feynman diagrammatic technique in the formulation of closed-time-path Green's functions. We find that, in addition to the electron heating, there exists the direct influence of a strong dc electric field on the quantum correction to the resistivity for all dimensions. Its physical origin is the same as that of an electric field on the Drude conductivity. Although for typical dirty metals this effect is submerged in the electron heating, it is in principle observable in cleaner, low-dimensional systems.