Mechanisms of the microwave photoconductivity in 2D electron systems with mixed disorder

TL;DR

This paper investigates how microwave radiation affects the magnetoresistance in 2D electron systems with mixed disorder, revealing the dominant mechanisms depend on disorder characteristics and temperature.

Contribution

It provides a systematic theoretical analysis of microwave photoconductivity mechanisms in 2D electron gases with mixed disorder types.

Findings

Photoresponse varies with disorder composition.

Different mechanisms dominate at different temperatures.

Theoretical framework identifies key transport contributions.

Abstract

We present a systematic study of the microwave-induced oscillations in the magnetoresistance of a 2D electron gas for mixed disorder including both short-range and long-range components. The obtained photoconductivity tensor contains contributions of four distinct transport mechanisms. We show that the photoresponse depends crucially on the relative weight of the short-range component of disorder. Depending on the properties of disorder, the theory allows one to identify the temperature range within which the photoresponse is dominated by one of the mechanisms analyzed in the paper.