Photoconductance of two-dimensional ballistic microstructures

Abstract

We calculate the photoconductance of two-dimensional ballistic microstructures subject to a high-frequency electromagnetic field. First, we study a simple quantum point contact. Absorption of photons is due to electronic transitions between different modes. A transition between a propagating and a nonpropagating mode results effectively in a backscattering process, and gives a negative or positive contribution to the current, depending on the gate voltage; the total quantized conductance acquires an additional, quite pronounced step-structure. Then, we demonstrate a new effect where the electron-photon interaction in a structure of slightly more complex geometry plays the same role as impurity scattering does in a “dirty” system. All relevant photons of the external electromagnetic field are coherent and spatial interference effects in electron-photon scattering become possible in spite of the inelastic nature of the collisions. These interference effects can be controlled by the gate voltage or the frequency of the electromagnetic field. As an illustration we calculate the photoconductance of a double point-contact geometry.