Magnetic susceptibility of a semiconductor superlattice under parallel electric and magnetic fields

Abstract

We have calculated the magnetic susceptibility chi of the degenerate electron gas in a semiconductor superlattice placed in parallel quantizing electric (E) and magnetic (H) fields directed along the superlattice growth axis. In this case the electrons have a purely discrete energy spectrum consisting of Landau and Wannier-Stark levels. This leads to: (i) the dependence of the monotonic part of the diamagnetic susceptibility of the electron gas on the electric field; (ii) the rise of a new oscillation period of chi as a function of H different from that of the de Haas-van Alphen oscillations; and (iii) the oscillatory behaviour of chi as a function of E with a periodicity in square root E. It is shown that in weak magnetic fields the Wannier-Stark quantization results in a step-like dependence of the paramagnetic susceptibility of the electron gas on the electric field strength.