Anomalous behavior of conductivity of the confined Q1D electron system over liquid helium

Conductivity of electrons in a quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) system over liquid helium in narrow channels with the parabolic profile of the potential well has been investigated at temperature T, from 0.4 to 1.8 K, for different driving electric fields and radius of channel curvature. The interval of linear electron densities varied from 2.18 x 10(3) up to 1.7x 10(6) cm(-1). The inverse mobility (1/mu(eff)) in the electron-ripplon scattering region at the high linear densities of charges in the channel increases with temperature decreasing. This anomalous behavior of the electron transport in the low-temperature region has been explained by either the electron ordering or the polaronic effects in confined conducting channels. The nonlinear behavior of the electron velocity as a function of a driving electric field is supposed to be due to Breg-Cherenkov radiation of the ripplons. The radiation occurred if the velocity of electrons in the channel approaches to the critical value. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.