Photon-Assisted Electron Transmission through a Quantum Point Contact

The theory of coherent photon-assisted electron transmission through a one-dimensional smooth barrier is successfully used to model the results of measuring the terahertz photoconductivity of a tunneling point contact in a two-dimensional electron gas. For this barrier in a deeper tunneling mode, photon steps in the curve of the transmission coefficient versus initial electron energy were found. Their position is determined by the terahertz photon energy.