ELECTRON-ELECTRON INTERACTIONS AND 2-DIMENSIONAL-2-DIMENSIONAL TUNNELING

We derive and evaluate expressions for the de tunneling conductance be tween interacting two-dimensional electron systems at nonzero temperat ure. The possibility of using the dependence of the tunneling conducta nce on voltage and temperature to determine the temperature-dependent electron-electron scattering rate at the Fermi energy is discussed. Th e finite electronic lifetime produced by electron-electron interaction s is calculated as a function of temperature for quasiparticles near t he Fermi circle. Vertex corrections to the random-phase approximation substantially increase the electronic scattering rate. Our results are in an excellent quantitative agreement with experiment.