Indication of band flattening at the Fermi level in a strongly correlated electron system

Using ultra-high quality SiGe/Si/SiGe quantum wells at millikelvin temperatures, we experimentally compare the energy-averaged effective mass, m, with that at the Fermi level, m (F), and verify that the behaviours of these measured values are qualitatively different. With decreasing electron density (or increasing interaction strength), the mass at the Fermi level monotonically increases in the entire range of electron densities, while the energy-averaged mass saturates at low densities. The qualitatively different behaviour reveals a precursor to the interaction-induced single-particle spectrum flattening at the Fermi level in this electron system.