Collisionless intraband absorption in a system of one-dimensional massless Dirac electrons

It has been shown that the Landau-damping-induced absorption of a modulated high-frequency electric field in a two-dimensional system of particles with a linear spectrum is absent up to the momentum of the field equal to the Fermi momentum of particles. This property qualitatively distinguishes such a system from the system of particles with a parabolic dispersion law, where the mentioned damping exists at any modulation period of an incident wave.     

Plasma oscillations of edge Dirac fermions

The dispersion law of one-dimensional plasmons in a quasi-one-dimensional system of massless Dirac fermions has been calculated. Two model two-dimensional systems where bands of edge states filled with such Dirac fermions appear at the edge have been considered. Edge states in the first system, topological insulator, are due to topological reasons. Edge states in the second system, system of massive Dirac fermions, have Tamm origin. It has been shown that the dispersion laws of plasmons in both systems in the long-wavelength limit differ only in the definition of the parameters (velocity and localization depth of Dirac fermions). The frequency of plasmons is formally quantum (ω ∝ ? ^?1/2) and, in the case of the Coulomb interaction between electrons, depends slightly on the Fermi level E _F. The dependence on E _F is stronger in the case of short-range interaction. The quantum features of oscillations of massless one-dimensional Dirac fermions are removed by introducing the mass of Dirac fermions at the Fermi level and their density. Correspondence to the dispersion law of classical one-dimensional plasma oscillations in a narrow stripe of “Schrödinger” electrons has been revealed.     

Microwave oscillator based on Bloch oscillations of electrons in a semiconductor superlattice

We report on a microwave oscillator based on Bloch oscillations of electrons in a semiconductor superlattice. Our GaAs/AlAs superlattice, at room temperature, was coupled electromagnetically by an antenna to a rectangular cavity resonator, and was operated at a current-voltage state of negative differential conductance. We observed generation of microwave radiation at frequencies, depending on the resonator length, between 7 and 30 GHz. Electronic tuning by several percent was possible; the ratio of linewidth to frequency was of the order of 10^?4. A radiation power up to 1 μW (at 10 GHz) was obtained, corresponding to a generator efficiency of the order of 10^?3 for the conversion of electrical power to microwave radiation.     

Surface plasmons in a semi-bounded massless Dirac plasma

The collective excitation of surface plasmons in a massless Dirac plasma (e.g., graphene) half-space (bounded by air) is investigated using a relativistic quantum fluid model. The unique features of such surface waves are discussed and compared with those in a Fermi plasma. It is found that in contrast to Fermi plasmas, the long-wavelength surface plasmon frequency (ω) in massless Dirac plasmas is explicitly nonclassical, i.e., $\omega \propto 1/\sqrt{?}$, where $h=2\pi ?$ is the Planck's constant. Besides some apparent similarities between the surface plasmon frequencies in massless Dirac plasmas and Fermi plasmas, several notable differences are also found and discussed. Our findings elucidate the properties of surface plasmons that may propagate in degenerate plasmas where the relativistic and quantum effects play a vital role.     

Frequency multiplication of microwave radiation in a semiconductor superlattice by electrons capable to perform Bloch oscillations

We report the observation of frequency multiplication of microwave radiation in a GaAs/AlAs semiconductor superlattice at room temperature. We observed, for a fundamental frequency of 9 GHz, second and third harmonic generation. We associate the harmonic generation with a nonlinear current-voltage characteristic that is determined by Bloch oscillations of electrons propagating along the superlattice axis. Our results suggest for the frequency multiplication an upper limit in the tetrahertz frequency range.     

Plasmons in a planar graphene superlattice

Plasmon collective excitations are studied in a planar graphene superlattice formed by periodically alternating regions of gapless graphene and of its gapped modification. The plasmon dispersion law is determined both for the quasi-one-dimensional case (the Fermi level is located within the minigap) and for the quasi-two-dimensional case (the Fermi level is located within the miniband). The problem concerning the absorption of modulated electromagnetic radiation at the excitation of plasmons is also considered.     

Quantum transport of massless Dirac fermions

Motivated by recent graphene transport experiments, we undertake a numerical study of the conductivity of disordered two-dimensional massless Dirac fermions. Our results reveal distinct differences between the cases of short-range and Coulomb randomly distributed scatterers. We speculate that this behavior is related to the Boltzmann transport theory prediction of dirty-limit behavior for Coulomb scatterers.     

Dirac electrons in solids

Electronic band structures in solids sometimes have features similar to Dirac electrons in vacuum. Well-known examples are bismuth and graphite; 4×4 original Dirac matrix in three dimension (3d) in the former with strong spin–orbit interaction, while 2×2 massless Dirac in two dimension (2d) with weak inter-layer coupling described essentially by Weyl equation in the latter. Recently one layer of graphite, graphene, is realized and studied both extensively and intensively. Other recent examples include a molecular solid, α-(BEDT-TTF)₂I₃$\mathrm{\alpha }\mathrm{-}(\mathrm{BEDT}\mathrm{-}\mathrm{TTF}{)}_2{\mathrm{I}}_3$, which has a layered structure with electronic states described by tilted-Weyl equation, and Fe-pnictides. There is also a theoretical proposal that one of inverse perovskites, Ca₃PbO, can be a candidate in 3d with strong spin–orbit interaction similar to bismuth. The particular feature of Dirac electrons in solids is a small, or even vanishing, band gap and then thermodynamic or transport properties are affected by inter-band coupling of electronic states. Typical ones are responses to external magnetic field. Actually, it has long been known that orbital susceptibility of these Dirac electrons has very particular features resulting from inter-band effects of magnetic field. It is of interest to see such inter-band effects on Hall effects to be compared with orbital susceptibility, which will be introduced in this paper, together with possible consequences of mutual interaction between valleys triggered by tilting in molecular solids.     

Magnetic confinement of massless Dirac fermions in graphene

Because of Klein tunneling, electrostatic potentials are unable to confine Dirac electrons. We show that it is possible to confine massless Dirac fermions in a monolayer graphene sheet by inhomogeneous magnetic fields. This allows one to design mesoscopic structures in graphene by magnetic barriers, e.g., quantum dots or quantum point contacts.     

Separating the variables in a massless Dirac equation in Minkowski space

Exact integration of the Dirac equation is a classical topic in mathematical physics, which has been researched for several decades. A basic method is complete segregation of the variables. Such separation can be attained in a Dirac equation containing an external electromagnetic field in Minkowski space by means of complete sets of first-order symmetry matrix operators. The purpose of this paper is to solve an analogous case for a free massless Dirac equation. That task has a special feature because external fields are absent and the massless equation is reduced to a D'Alambert equation by squaring. Nevertheless, interest attaches to states defined by the first-order symmetry-operator matrices that cannot be obtained by setting the mass to zero in systems containing a mass Dirac equation.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 1, pp. 105–110, January, 1995.     

Resonant oscillations of massless neutrinos in matter

Oscillations of neutrinos propagating in matter do not require that neutrinos are massive, at a fundamental level. Even if neutrinos are massless as a consequence of an exact symmetry - such as total lepton number - they can oscillate into one another if the weak interaction has a small non-universal component, whose existence would signal physics beyond the standard model. The experimental constraints and theoretical plausibility of the mechanism are discussed. Coherent neutrino and antineutrino scattering could substantially affect the late thermal phase neutrino signal from a supernova explosion.     

Giant commensurability oscillations in a stressed surface superlattice

We have fabricated a novel type of lateral surface superlattice device comprising parallel, stressed ribs of In_0.2Ga_0.8As on a GaAs/Al_0.3Ga_0.7As heterostructure containing a high mobility two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Magnetotransport measurements were used to deduce the form and magnitude of the potential modulation. These experiments, supported by our calculations, indicate the importance of both piezoelectric coupling of stress to the electrons and the repulsive potential induced in the 2DEG by the removal of layers from the surface to define the superlattice.     

The tunneling density-of-states of interacting massless Dirac fermions

We calculate the tunneling density-of-states (DOS) of a disorder-free two-dimensional interacting electron system with a massless-Dirac band Hamiltonian. The DOS exhibits two main features: (i) linear growth at large energies with a slope that is suppressed by quasiparticle velocity enhancement, and (ii) a rich structure of plasmaron peaks which appear at negative bias voltages in an n-doped sample and at positive bias voltages in a p-doped sample. We predict that the DOS at the Dirac point is non-zero even in the absence of disorder because of electron–electron interactions, and that it is then accurately proportional to the Fermi energy. The finite background DOS observed at the Dirac point of graphene sheets and topological insulator surfaces can therefore be an interaction effect rather than a disorder effect.