Effect of impurities on the steady component of the current in a quantum wire under the joint action of ac and dc fields

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The current flowing along a cylindrical quantum wire with a superlattice in the case of the simultaneous application of dc and ac fields is calculated. It is assumed that the wire contains impurity centers, whose ionization results in the generation of nonequilibrium carriers in the conduction band. It is found that the dependence of the steady component of the current on the ac-field frequency is a step-like function. It is shown that the distance between steps depends on the conduction miniband width and the transverse quantum confinement parameters and is independent of the impurity-level depth.