Drag of ballistic electrons by an ionic beam: Giant oscillations of the drag current

Foundations of the theory of Coulomb drag of ballistic electrons of a quantum nanowire by a flux of monoenergetic heavy ions moving with the same velocity V have been elaborated. The ratio of the drag current to the initial current of the ionic beam has been determined. It has been shown that the drag current is a nonmonotonic function of the velocity V. This function has a sharp maximum at the velocity V = v nF/2, where n is the number of the upper active (i.e., participating in the charge transfer) electron miniband (channel) and v nF is the corresponding Fermi velocity. Thus, it turns out that the phenomenon of giant oscillations of the Coulomb drag current can be used for studying the electron spectra of ballistic nanostructures.