Impurity Effect on the Two-Dimensional-Electron Fluid-Solid Transition in Zero Field

Abstract

We investigate the effect of impurities on the electron fluid-solid transition with parameters appropriate for the system recently studied by Pudalov et al. The nature of the crystalline state at $T=0$ in the presence of impurities is studied with the relaxation technique. The solid-fluid transition is studied via perturbation calculation and Monte Carlo simulation. The transition density is found to shift from ${r}_{s}\ensuremath{\approx}37$ for the pure system to ${r}_{s}\ensuremath{\approx}7.5$, close to that observed experimentally. At this small value of ${r}_{s}$, the fluid energy is sensitive to the spin polarization but the solid is not, suggesting possible interesting magnetic behavior.