Electric-Field Breakdown of Absolute Negative Conductivity and Supersonic Streams in Two-Di.pdf

a r X i v : c o n d - m a t / 0 3 0 6 0 5 1 v 1 [ c o n d - m a t .m e s - h a l l ] 3 J u n 2 0 0 3 APS/123-QED Electric-Field Breakdown of Absolute Negative Conductivity and Supersonic Streams in Two-Dimensional Electron Systems with Zero Resistance/Conductance States V. Ryzhii? and A. Satou Computer Solid State Physics Laboratory, University of Aizu, Aizu-Wakamatsu 965-8580, Japan (Dated: February 2, 2008) We calculate the current-voltage characteristic of a two-dimensional electron system (2DES) sub- jected to a magnetic field at strong electric fields. The interaction of electrons with piezoelectric acoustic phonons is considered as a major scattering mechanism governing the current-voltage char- acteristic. It is shown that at a sufficiently strong electric field corresponding to the Hall drift velocity exceeding the velocity of sound, the dissipative current exhibits an overshoot. The over- shoot of the dissipative current can result in a breakdown of the absolute negative conductivity caused by microwave irradiation and, therefore, substantially effect the formation of the domain structures with the zero-resistance and zero-conductance states and supersonic electron streams. PACS numbers: PACS numbers: 73.40.-c, 78.67.-n, 73.43.-f Recently, two experimental groups [1, 2] have reported the observation of vanishing electrical resistance in two- dimensional electron systems (2DES’s) subjected to a magnetic field and strong microwave radiation. The oc- currence of the effect of the so-called zero-resistance (ZR) and zero-conductance (ZC) states [1, 2, 3] has been linked to the effect of absolute negative conductivity (ANC) when the dissipative dc conductivity σ(E), determined by the dark conductivity σd(E) and microwave photo- conductivity σph(E), is negative [4, 5, 6]. As speculated, the mechanism of ANC responsible for the occurrence of ZR and ZC states is associated with the photon-assisted scattering of electrons on impurities [7, 8, 9, 10, 11], al-