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 = vnF/2, where n is the number of the upper active (i.e., participating in the charge transfer) electron miniband (channel) and vnF 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.