Electron scattering by electron holograms: The physical interpretation of the Coulomb anomaly in disordered electron systems

Two-dimensional disordered conductors show a resistance anomaly at low temperatures. In addition to weak localization there is also a contribution due to the Coulomb interaction which was discovered by Altshuler et al. In this paper the Hartree contribution is translated into transparent physics. The underlying physics is rather interesting and has some similarity with optical holography. If one considers the propagation of an electron on a closed loop (after many scattering events) then it interferes with itself and forms a charge pattern which contains all information about the impurities (and corresponds to a hologram). A conduction electron which is scattered by the same impurities generally experiences the same phase shifts. However, if it is scattered by the ``charge hologram'' the dephasing is readjusted, and one obtains a constructive interference.