Novel regimes of electron dynamics in superlattices

Abstract

A superlattice (SL) is an artificial crystal in which alternating nanometre-thick layers of two or more different semiconductor materials provide a periodic potential for conduction electrons. Strong magnetic and electric fields applied to this type of structure provide a means of exploring novel regimes of electron dynamics. The applied fields lower the dimensionality of the electronic states and lead to qualitative changes in the electronic conduction. This discovery is of fundamental interest and highly relevant to the properties of other low-dimensional conductors, such as nanowires and quantum dot SLs, which are presently attracting the attention of the physics and device communities. In addition, a rare type of chaotic electron dynamics, called non-Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) chaotic motion, which has been theoretically studied for several decades, is observed experimentally in SLs. The onset of chaos at discrete values of the applied electric and magnetic fields is observed as a large increase in the current flow due to the creation of unbound electron orbits, which propagate through intricate web patterns in phase space. Therefore, non-KAM chaos could provide a new mechanism for controlling the electrical conductivity of the electronic devices with extreme sensitivity.