Conductivity of a superlattice with parabolic miniband

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical study of the static and high-frequency conductivity of a one-dimensional superlattice with a parabolic miniband, highlighting temperature effects and potential for terahertz applications at low temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel temperature-dependent formula for static current density and analyzes high-frequency response, advancing understanding of superlattice conductivity for terahertz generation.

Findings

Current maximum shifts to low field with increasing temperature.

Superlattices can generate terahertz fields only at very low temperatures.

Temperature influences high-frequency differential conductivity response.

Abstract

The static and high-frequency differential conductivity of a one-dimensional superlattice with parabolic miniband, in which the dispersion law is assumed to be parabolic up to the Brillouin zone edge, are investigated theoretically. Unlike the earlier published works, devoted to this problem, the novel formula for the static current density contains temperature dependence, which leads to the current maximum shift to the low field side with increasing temperature. The high-frequency differential conductivity response properties including the temperature dependence is examined and opportunities of creating a terahertz oscillator on Bloch electron oscillations in such superlattices are discussed. Analysis shows that superlattices with parabolic miniband dispersion law may be used for generation and amplification of terahertz fields only at very low temperatures.