D.C. transport in intense, in-plane terahertz electric fields in AlxGa1−xAs heterostructures at 300 K

Abstract We report 300 K studies of the dependence of the in-plane, d.c. conductivity, σ d.c. ( E ω ), of a quasi 2D electron gas on the amplitude E ω and frequency of intense, far-infrared fields ( ω /2 π = 0.24−3.5 THz). We measure σ d.c. ( E ω ∥ E d.c. ), where E d . c . is a small sensing field, and obser monotonic decrease in σ d.c. with increasing E ω . Although a simple scaling ansatz collapses the measured σ d.c. ( E ω ) data onto a single curve for frequencies from 0.25–3.45 THz (at low to moderate scaled fields), the decrease in conductivity is substantially more rapid than expected from comparison to similar data taken by Masselink et al. [ Solid-St. Electron. 31, 337 (1988)] at 35 GHz. We tentatively attribute this difference to effects of a high-frequency modulation in the electron temperature.