EDGE MAGNETOPLASMONS FOR A NEW TYPE OF QUANTUM-WELL MICROWAVE DETECTOR

Abstract

We theoretically study the wavelength and the propagation length of the edge magnetoplasmons (EMP's), running along the edge of a two-dimensional (2D) electron layer in a semiconductor quantum-well structure with and without metallic gates. We show that the metallic gate suppresses the propagation of the EMP's, but the quality factor of the wave (q′/q″, where q′ and q″ are the real and imaginary parts of the complex EMP wavevector) can be larger in the gated structures as compared to the structures without the gate. The results may be useful for analysis of operation of the recently discovered microwave detectors and spectrometers operating at liquid nitrogen temperatures (Kukushkin et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 044101 (2005)).