EFFECT OF ELECTRON CORRELATIONS AND DISORDER ON MOBILITY AND LOCALIZATION IN QUASI-ONE-DIMENSIONAL WIRES

A self-consistent method for determining electron correlations and ele ctron scattering from disorder is used to calculate electron mobilitie s in disordered quantum wires of finite diameter. We look at electron localization in terms of mean free paths. We find cases where the mobi lity drops toward zero, and the mean free path is of the order of the average electron spacing, corresponding to strong localization. We det ermine the peak mobility as a function of impurity density and wire di ameter.