Microwave-induced zero-resistance states and second-harmonic generation in an ultraclean two-dimensional electron gas

Abstract

Microwave-induced resistance oscillations (MIRO) and "zero-resistance" states (ZRS) were discovered in ultraclean two-dimensional electron systems in 2001-2003 and have attracted great interest from researchers. A comprehensive theory of these phenomena was developed in 2011: It was shown that all experimentally observed dependencies can be naturally explained by the influence of the ponderomotive forces which arise in the near-contact regions of the two-dimensional electron gas under the action of microwaves. Now we show that the same near-contact physical processes should lead to another nonlinear electrodynamic phenomenon - the second-harmonic generation. We calculate the frequency, magnetic field, mobility, and power dependencies of the second-harmonic intensity and show that it can be as large as ~ 0.5 mW/cm2 under realistic experimental conditions. A part of this paper is devoted to a further discussion of the MIRO/ZRS phenomena: we explain how the ponderomotive-force theory explains different experimental details, including those which were not known in 2011, and critically discuss alternative theories.