Kinetics of two-dimensional electrons on a curved surface

A number of effect's associated with the curvature of the surface on which a two-dimensional (2D) electron gas is placed are studied. The most significant effect in an external magnetic field (which for 2D electrons becomes effectively nonuniform) is the lifting of the degeneracy of the Landau levels. The intensity and shape of the cyclotron resonance line (inhomogeneously broadened) for different polarizations and the corrections to the Hall constant are found for the example of a circular cylinder. A picture of the quantization of the conductance that is qualitatively different from the case of a hat strip is obtained for a quasi-one-dimensional quantum wire in the form of a hollow cylinder. It is shown that in contradistinction to the planar case the spectrum of 2D electrons on the curved surface is sensitive to the sign of the spin-orbit coupling constant (for a fixed sign of the curvature). For heterojunctions, for example, this opens up new possibilities for extracting information about their ''hidden parameters.'' (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.