Tunneling of surface state electrons on liquid helium in the presence of disorder and ripplons.

For electrons on thin films of liquid helium, it is possible for significant electron-ripplon coupling to occur. The gas- atom density at finite temperatures (>~(1K) is such that significant electron-helium atom scattering occurs. Depending on how thin the helium film is, the electrons can feel localization effects due to gas-atom scattering (or possibly substitute roughness). The movement of electrons on the surface would be via tunneling from one localized state to another, by resonant tunneling or by thermally activated hopping from one state to another. This allows a simple modelling of the localizing potential including the electron-ripplon effects.