We study a theoretical model of virtual scanning tunneling microscopy (VSTM), a proposed application of interlayer tunneling in a bilayer system to locally probe a two-dimensional electron system (2DES) in a semiconductor heterostructure. We consider tunneling for the case where transport in the 2DESs is ballistic, and show that the zero-bias anomaly is suppressed by extremely efficient screening. Since such an anomaly would complicate the interpretation of data from a VSTM, this result is encouraging for efforts to implement such a microscopy technique.
@article{arxiv.0905.1138,
title = {Local Interlayer Tunneling Between Two-Dimensional Electron Systems in the Ballistic Regime},
author = {Katherine Luna and Eun-Ah Kim and Paul Oreto and Steven A. Kivelson and David Goldhaber-Gordon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0905.1138},
year = {2011}
}