Evidence of novel quasiparticles in a strongly interacting two-dimensional electron system: giant thermopower and metallic behaviour

Abstract

We report thermopower (S) and electrical resistivity (ρ_2DES) measurements in low-density (10¹⁴ m⁻²), mesoscopic two-dimensional electron systems (2DESs) in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures at sub-Kelvin temperatures. We observe at temperatures ≲ 0.7 K a linearly growing S as a function of temperature indicating metal-like behaviour. Interestingly this metallicity is not Drude-like, showing several unusual characteristics: (i) the magnitude of S exceeds the Mott prediction valid for non-interacting metallic 2DESs at similar carrier densities by over two orders of magnitude; and (ii) ρ_2DES in this regime is two orders of magnitude greater than the quantum of resistance h/e² and shows very little temperature-dependence. We provide evidence suggesting that these observations arise due to the formation of novel quasiparticles in the 2DES that are not electron-like. Finally, ρ_2DES and S show an intriguing decoupling in their density-dependence, the latter showing striking oscillations and even sign changes that are completely absent in the resistivity.