Plasmon mechanism of resistance magnetooscillations in a two-dimensional electron system in strong electric fields

Abstract

A multielectron approach is developed to explain the resistance magnetooscillations in two-dimensional electron systems that have recently been detected under the action of microwave pumping [1] or a strong dc electric field [23]. A qualitative change in the screened impurity potential in a strong electric field is taken into account for the first time. When considered in the rest frame of the center of the cyclotron orbit, the impurity potential becomes nonstationary and, thus, should be screened dynamically. This fact substantially changes the picture of impurity scattering in a “pure” two-dimensional system: a dissipative current is induced by the excitation of two-dimensional plasmons rather than by one-electron transitions between the Landau levels. In the case of microwave pumping, every period of resistance oscillation in a reciprocal magnetic field is formed by the excitation of the corresponding magnetoplasmon branch, and the fine structure of oscillations is formed by the singularities of the magnetoplasmon density of states. In a “dirty” two-dimensional system, the role of electron-electron interaction weakens, collective excitations cease to exist, and the results transform into the well-known results obtained in terms of a one-electron approach.