Fractional and unquantized dc voltage generation in THz-driven semiconductor superlattices

¹ Division of Theoretical Physics, Department of Physical Sciences Box 3000, University of Oulu FIN-90014, Finland
² Theory of Nonlinear Processes Laboratory, Kirensky Institute of Physics Krasnoyarsk 660036, Russia
³ Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
⁴ Department of Physics, Loughborough University Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK
⁵ Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics Boston University - Boston, MA 02215, USA

Corresponding author: Kirill.Alekseev@oulu.fi

Received: 14 May 2001
Accepted: 3 October 2001

Abstract

We consider the spontaneous creation of a dc voltage across a strongly coupled semiconductor superlattice subjected to THz radiation. We show that the dc voltage may be approximately proportional either to an integer or to a half-integer multiple of the frequency of the applied ac field, depending on the ratio of the characteristic scattering rates of conducting electrons. For the case of an ac field frequency less than the characteristic scattering rates, we demonstrate the generation of an unquantized dc voltage.