Doppler-Shifted Cyclotron Resonance in Thin Metal Films

Abstract

According to Van Gelder the microwave absorption by a thin metal film in the presence of a static magnetic field normal to the film contains a series of peaks as the magnetic field is varied. In the present paper it is argued that these peaks correspond to Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonances of the carriers in the metal due to the quantization of electron momenta normal to the plane of the film. A simple quantum calculation is presented for the case of free electrons where the film is thin enough that to first order the microwave fields within are determined only by the boundary conditions and Maxwell's equations. The quantum expression is in good agreement with the absorption calculated using semiclassical arguments which can be readily extended to more complicated Fermi surfaces.