Molecular dynamics study of diffusion in a bilayer electron gas

Molecular dynamics simulations of strongly coupled, classical electronic bilayers, interacting through the Coulomb potential, have been produced and studied. Values of the plasma coupling parameter Γ between 10 and 80 and interlayer separations d from 0.1 to 3.0, (in units of Wigner-Seitz radius), were considered. The simulation results were used to calculate the intralayer and interlayer pair correlation functions and self-diffusion of charged particles in this system. The variation of self-diffusion with Γ and d has been analyzed, and it is found that for the largest value of Γ, the diffusion coefficient does not increase monotonically with layer separation, but has a distinct minimum for values of d slightly less than 1. © 2002 The American Physical Society.