Experimental Study of Quantum Chaos and Magnetic Solidification in a 2-Dimensional Electron System

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The existence of chaos in quantum systems is a question of fundamental importance as well as of practical relevance. So far experiments on quantum chaos have been conducted by the study of microwave ionization of highly excited hydrogen atoms. They allowed access only to the regime where the chaotic behavior looks classical. It is proposed here to study microwave liberation of electrons bound to the liquid helium surface. This experiment permits the exploration of regions in parameter space where deviations from classical chaos are expected to take place. Another project that will be carried out is the study of the magnetically induced Wigner transition in a 2-D electron system. An electron solid is expected to melt when, for sufficiently high densities, the zero point motion becomes larger than the Coulomb interaction. This type of transition has not yet been observed since in existing 2-D electron systems where the densities are either too high (in heterojunctions) or too low (electrons on Helium). In a joint project with F.I.B. Williams and E. Mendez it is proposed to induce the Wigner transition in the 2-D electron liquid in a GaAl/GeAlAs heterojunction by means of a strong magnetic field. It will be detected by measuring the shear modulus of the electron layer.