Using acoustic waves to induce high-frequency current oscillations in superlattices

Abstract

We show that GHz acoustic waves in semiconductor superlattices can induce THz electron dynamics that depend critically on the wave amplitude. Below a threshold amplitude, the acoustic wave drags electrons through the superlattice with a peak drift velocity overshooting that produced by a static electric field. In this regime, single electrons perform drifting orbits with THz frequency components. When the wave amplitude exceeds the critical threshold, an abrupt onset of Bloch-like oscillations causes negative differential velocity. The acoustic wave also affects the collective behavior of the electrons by causing the formation of localised electron accumulation and depletion regions, which propagate through the superlattice, thereby producing self-sustained current oscillations even for very small wave amplitudes. We show that the underlying single-electron dynamics, in particular the transition between the acoustic wave dragging and Bloch oscillation regimes, strongly influence the spatial distribution of the electrons and the form of the current oscillations. In particular, the amplitude of the current oscillations depends non-monotonically on the strength of the acoustic wave, reflecting the variation of the single-electron drift velocity.

10 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Thermal Logic Gates: Computation with phonons
• Controlling and enhancing THz collective electron dynamics in superlattices by chaos-assisted miniband transport
• Theory of parametric amplification in in superlattices
• Bifurcations and chaos in semiconductor superlattices with a tilted magnetic field
• Stochastic resonance in periodic potentials: realization in a dissipative optical lattice
• Stochastic webs and quantum transport in superlattices: an introductory review

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Effect of temperature on resonant electron transport through stochastic conduction channels in superlattices
• Controlling high-frequency collective electron dynamics via single-particle complexity
• Nonlinear dynamics and band transport in a superlattice driven by a plane wave
• Resonant control of cold-atom transport through two optical lattices with a constant relative speed
• Quantum transport in a driven disordered potential: onset of directed current and noise-induced current reversal
• Beyond the ordinary acoustoelectric effect: superluminal phenomena in the acoustic realm and phonon-mediated Bloch gain
• Ultrafast strain-induced charge transport in semiconductor superlattices