Resonant Correlation-Induced Optical Bistability in an Electron System on Liquid Helium

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that electrons on liquid helium exhibit intrinsic optical bistability at low microwave power due to strong electron correlations and multi-subband energy structure, revealing a giant nonlinearity in their response.

Contribution

It introduces a new understanding of optical bistability caused by electron correlations in a liquid helium system, highlighting a novel nonlinear phenomenon.

Findings

Electrons on liquid helium show intrinsic optical bistability.

Bistability occurs at relatively weak microwave power.

Giant nonlinearity arises from electron correlations and multi-subband effects.

Abstract

We show that electrons on liquid helium display intrinsic bistability of resonant inter-subband absorption. The bistability occurs for comparatively weak microwave power. The underlying giant nonlinearity of the many-electron response results from the interplay of the strong short-range electron correlations, the long relaxation time, and the multi-subband character of the electron energy spectrum.