An incompressible state of a photo-excited electron gas

Piezoacoustics for precision control of electrons floating on helium

Piezoelectric surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are powerful for investigating and controlling elementary and collective excitations in condensed matter. In semiconductor two-dimensional electron systems SAWs have been used to reveal the spatial and temporal structure of electronic states, produce quantized charge pumping, and transfer quantum information. In contrast to semiconductors, electrons trapped above the surface of superfluid helium form an ultra-high mobility, two-dimensional electron system home to strongly-interacting Coulomb liquid and solid states, which exhibit non-trivial spatial structure and temporal dynamics prime for SAW-based experiments. Here we report on the coupling of electrons on helium to an evanescent piezoelectric SAW. We demonstrate precision acoustoelectric transport of as little as ~0.01% of the electrons, opening the door to future quantized charge pumping experiments. We also show SAWs are a route to investigating the high-frequency dynamical response, and relaxational processes, of collective excitations of the electronic liquid and solid phases of electrons on helium.

Hybrid devices based on electrons on helium may find application in quantum devices. Here the authors demonstrate surface acoustic wave driven acoustoelectric transport of electrons on superfluid helium.

Many-Electron System on Helium and Color Center Spectroscopy

Electrons on the helium surface display sharp resonant absorption lines related to the transitions between the subbands of quantized motion transverse to the surface. A magnetic field parallel to the surface strongly affects the absorption spectrum. We show that the effect results from admixing the intersubband transitions to the in-plane quantum dynamics of the strongly correlated electron liquid or a Wigner crystal. This is similar to the admixing of electron transitions in color centers to phonons. The spectrum permits a direct characterization of the many-electron dynamics and also enables testing the theory of color centers in a system with controllable coupling.

Acoustoelectric Study of Microwave-Induced Current Domains

Surface acoustic waves (SAW) have been utilized to investigate the properties of a two-dimensional electron system subjected to a perpendicular magnetic field and monochromatic microwave radiation in the regime where the so-called microwave-induced zero-resistance states form. Contrary to conventional magnetotransport in Hall bar and van der Pauw geometries, the collimated SAW beam probes only the bulk of the electronic system exposed to this wave. Clear signatures appear in the SAW propagation velocity, corroborating that neither contacts nor sample edges are a root source for their emergence. By virtue of the directional nature of this probing method and with the assistance of theoretical modeling, we were able to demonstrate that the SAW response depends on the angle between its propagation vector and the orientation of domains that spontaneously form when zero-resistance is observed in transport. This confirms in unprecedented manner the formation of an inhomogeneous phase under these nonequilibrium conditions.

Study of narrow negative magnetoresistance effect in ultra-high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2DES under microwave photo-excitation

The microwave-induced change in the narrow negative magnetoresistance effect that appears around zero magnetic field in high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2DES (≈10⁷ cm²/Vs) is experimentally examined as a function of incident microwave power at a fixed bath temperature. The experimental results indicate that the narrow negative magnetoresistance effect exhibits substantially increased broadening with increasing microwave intensity. These magnetoresistance data were subjected to lineshape fits to extract possible variation of characteristic lengths with microwave intensity; the results suggest that characteristic lengths decrease by up to 50% upon increasing microwave power up to about 8 mW. We also examine the change in effective electron temperature, T_e, due to the photo-excitation in the absence of a magnetic field. Combining these results suggests a correlation between electron heating and the observed change in the fit extracted characteristic lengths.

Radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in monolayer and bilayer graphene

We examine the characteristics of the microwave/mm-wave/terahertz radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in monolayer and bilayer graphene and report that the oscillation frequency of the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in the massless, linearly dispersed monolayer graphene system should depend strongly both on the Fermi energy, and the radiation frequency, unlike in the case of the massive, parabolic, GaAs/AlGaAs 2D electron system, where the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillation frequency depends mainly on the radiation frequency. This possible dependence of the magnetoresistance oscillation frequency on the Fermi level at a fixed radiation frequency also suggests a sensitivity to the gate voltage in gated graphene, which suggests an in-situ tunable photo-excitation response in monolayer graphene that could be useful for sensing applications. In sharp contrast to monolayer graphene, bilayer graphene is expected to show radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations more similar to the results observed in the GaAs/AlGaAs 2D system. Such expectations for the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations are presented here to guide future experimental studies in both of these modern atomic layer material systems.

Coupling between Rydberg States and Landau Levels of Electrons Trapped on Liquid Helium

We investigate the coupling between Rydberg states of electrons trapped on a liquid helium surface and Landau levels induced by a perpendicular magnetic field. We show that this realizes a prototype quantum system equivalent to an atom in a cavity, where their coupling strength can be tuned by a parallel magnetic field. We determine experimentally the renormalization of the atomic transition energies induced by the coupling to the cavity, which can be seen as an analog of the Lamb shift. When the coupling is sufficiently strong, the transition between the ground and first excited Rydberg states splits into two resonances corresponding to dressed states with vacuum and one photon in the cavity. Our results are in quantitative agreement with the energy shifts predicted by the effective atom in a cavity model where all parameters are known with high accuracy.

Cyclotron resonance in the high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2D electron system over the microwave, mm-wave, and terahertz- bands

The reflected microwave power from the photo-excited high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2D device has been measured over the wide frequency band spanning from 30 to 330 GHz simultaneously along with diagonal magnetoresistance as a function of the magnetic field. Easily distinguishable resonances in the reflected power signal are observed at the same magnetic fields as a reduced amplitude in the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations of the diagonal magnetoresistance. The reflection resonances with concurrent amplitude reduction in SdH oscillations are correlated with cyclotron resonance induced by microwave, mm-wave, and terahertz photoexcitation. The magnetoplasma effect was also investigated. The results suggest a finite frequency zero-magnetic-field intercept, providing an estimate for the plasma frequency. The experimentally measured plasma frequency appears to be somewhat lower than the estimated plasma frequency for these Hall bars. The results, in sum, are consistent with an effective mass ratio of m*/m = 0.067, the standard value, even in these high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs devices, at very large filling factors. Preliminary findings from this article have been published as conference proceedings, see Kriisa, A., et al., J. of Phys. Conf. Ser. 864, 012057 (2017).

Unconventional field-effect transistor composed of electrons floating on liquid helium

We report on an unconventional macroscopic field effect transistor composed of electrons floating above the surface of superfluid helium. With this device unique transport regimes are realized in which the charge density of the electron layer can be controlled in a manner not possible in other material systems. In particular, we are able to manipulate the collective behavior of the electrons to produce a highly non-uniform, but precisely controlled, charge density to reveal a negative source-drain current. This behavior can be understood by considering the propagation of damped charge oscillations along a transmission line formed by the inhomogeneous sheet of two-dimensional electrons above, and between, the source and drain electrodes of the transistor.

Electron heating induced by an ac-bias current in the regime of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation in the high mobility GaAs/Al x Ga1-x As two-dimensional electron system

The magnetotransport properties of the high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas systems have been examined to determine the influence of the ac current bias on the carrier temperature. The changes in the line shape of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the longitudinal magnetoresistance ([Formula: see text]) were followed as a function of the ac current bias in the temperature range of [Formula: see text] in order to determine the carrier heating effect due to the ac bias. The lineshape analysis of these oscillations indicates that the carrier temperature of the two-dimensional electron system is linearly proportional to the ac bias current.

Coherent backscattering in quasi-ballistic ultra-high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2DES

A small and narrow negative-magnetoresistance (MR) effect that appears about null magnetic field over the interval −0.025 ≤ B ≤ 0.025 T in magnetotransport studies of the GaAs/AlGaAs 2D system with μ ≈ 10⁷cm²/Vs is experimentally examined as a function of the sample temperature, T. The temperature dependent magnetoresistance data were fit using the Hikami et al. theory, without including the spin-orbit correction, to extract the inelastic length, l_i, which decreases rapidly with increasing temperature. It turns out that l_i < l_e, where l_e is the elastic length, for all T. Thus, we measured the single particle lifetime, τ_s, and the single particle mean free path l_s = v_Fτ_s. A comparison between l_i and l_s indicates that l_i > l_s. The results suggest that the observed small and narrow magnetoresistance effect about null magnetic field could be a manifestation of coherent backscattering due to small angle scattering from remote ionized donors in the high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2DES.

Ripplonic Lamb Shift for Electrons on Liquid Helium

We study the shift of the energy levels of electrons on a helium surface due to the coupling to the quantum field of surface vibrations. As in quantum electrodynamics, the coupling is known, and it is known to lead to an ultraviolet divergence of the level shifts. We show that there are diverging terms of different nature and use the Bethe-type approach to show that they cancel each other, to leading order. This resolves the long-standing theoretical controversy and explains the existing experiments. The results allow us to study the temperature dependence of the level shift. The predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data, with no adjustable parameters.

Radiation-induced resistance oscillations in 2D electron systems with strong Rashba coupling

We present a theoretical study on the effect of radiation on the mangetoresistance of two-dimensional electron systems with strong Rashba spint-orbit coupling. We want to study the interplay between two well-known effects in these electron systems: the radiation-induced resistance oscillations and the typical beating pattern of systems with intense Rashba interaction. We analytically derive an exact solution for the electron wave function corresponding to a total Hamiltonian with Rashba and radiation terms. We consider a perturbation treatment for elastic scattering due to charged impurities to finally obtain the magnetoresistance of the system. Without radiation we recover a beating pattern in the amplitude of the Shubnikov de Hass oscillations: a set of nodes and antinodes in the magnetoresistance. In the presence of radiation this beating pattern is strongly modified following the profile of radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations. We study their dependence on intensity and frequency of radiation, including the teraherzt regime. The obtained results could be of interest for magnetotransport of nonideal Dirac fermions in 3D topological insulators subjected to radiation.

Mutual influence between current-induced giant magnetoresistance and radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in the GaAs/AlGaAs 2DES

Radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations are examined in the GaAs/AlGaAs 2D system in the regime where an observed concurrent giant magnetoresistance is systematically varied with a supplementary dc-current, I_dc. The I_dc tuned giant magnetoresistance is subsequently separated from the photo-excited oscillatory resistance using a multi-conduction model in order to examine the interplay between the two effects. The results show that the invoked multiconduction model describes the observed giant magnetoresistance effect even in the presence of radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations, the magnetoresistance oscillations do not modify the giant magnetoresistance, and the magnetoresistance oscillatory extrema, i.e., maxima and minima, disappear rather asymmetrically with increasing I_dc. The results suggest the interpretation that the I_dc serves to suppress scattering between states near the Fermi level in a strong magnetic field limit.

Microwave-Induced Oscillations in Magnetocapacitance: Direct Evidence for Nonequilibrium Occupation of Electronic States

In a two-dimensional electron system, microwave radiation may induce giant resistance oscillations. Their origin has been debated controversially and numerous mechanisms based on very different physical phenomena have been invoked. However, none of them have been unambiguously experimentally identified, since they produce similar effects in transport studies. The capacitance of a two-subband system is sensitive to a redistribution of electrons over energy states, since it entails a shift of the electron charge perpendicular to the plane. In such a system, microwave-induced magnetocapacitance oscillations have been observed. They can only be accounted for by an electron distribution function oscillating with energy due to Landau quantization, one of the quantum mechanisms proposed for the resistance oscillations.

Strong Coupling of the Cyclotron Motion of Surface Electrons on Liquid Helium to a Microwave Cavity

The strong coupling regime is observed in a system of two-dimensional electrons whose cyclotron motion is coupled to an electromagnetic mode in a Fabry-Perot cavity resonator. Rabi splitting of eigenfrequencies of the coupled motion is observed both in the cavity reflection spectrum and ac current of the electrons, the latter probed by measuring their bolometric photoresponse. Despite the fact that similar observations of Rabi splitting in many-particle systems have been described as a quantum-mechanical effect, we show that the observed splitting can be explained completely by a model based on classical electrodynamics.