Disordered AlAs wires: Temperature-dependent resonance areas within the Fermi-liquid paradigm

AlAs cleaved-edge overgrown quantum wires near pinch-off reveal conductance resonances with an unconventional dependence on temperature T. The resonance areas decrease with reduced T consistent with classical Coulomb blockade (CB) in a single dot, but then become rapidly smaller below a crossover T-X. Though resembling Luttinger liquid behavior below the crossover, the anomalous T dependence including the crossover fit quantitatively to a classical-to-stochastic CB transition, whereby stochastic multidot CB sets in at low temperatures. Conductance at finite bias resembles a depinned charge density wave as expected for a chain of disorder induced dots. These studies highlight the applicability of the Fermi liquid paradigm to the description of disordered heavy-mass quantum wires.