We have theoretically described a mechanism of instability and self-excitation of 2D plasmons in the quantum well of an RTD (regions with Im(ω)>0 in the Fig.).Ref. 20 Under certain conditions, the mechanism should lead to filamentation of current through the RTDs and appearance of characteristic features in the RTD I-V curves. We have also predicted excitation of junction plasmons at the Schottky interface and in the semiconductor-dielectric-semiconductor structures at THz frequencies.Ref. 21 Further, we were investigating plasmonic mechanism of resonant THz transmission through sub-wavelength metal gratings and plasmonic enhancement of the radiation efficiency of fs photoconductive emitters in time-domain THz systems.

Graph: Spectra for real and imaginary parts of plasmon frequencies for 2 structures. For low wave numbers, the spectra are purely imaginary.

© Michael Feiginov

Plasmon spectra for two structures with different scattering time constants