Theory of the microwave induced zero resistance states in two-dimensional electron systems

TL;DR

This paper presents an analytical theory explaining microwave induced zero resistance states and oscillations in two-dimensional electron systems through ponderomotive forces, aligning with experimental observations and clarifying their dependencies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel explanation based on ponderomotive forces for MIRO/ZRS phenomena, unifying various experimental dependencies.

Findings

The theory matches all experimental data collected so far.

Ponderomotive forces explain the effects' dependence on microwave frequency, polarization, and other parameters.

Provides a simple, self-evident explanation for the phenomena.

Abstract

The phenomena of the microwave induced zero resistance states (MIZRS) and the microwave induced resistance oscillations (MIRO) were discovered in the ultraclean two-dimensional electron systems in 2001 -- 2003 and have attracted great interest of researchers. In spite of numerous theoretical efforts the true origin of these effects remains unknown so far. We show that the MIRO/ZRS phenomena are naturally explained by the influence of the ponderomotive forces which arise in the near-contact regions of the two-dimensional electron gas under the action of microwaves. The proposed analytical theory is in agreement with all experimental facts accumulated so far and provides a simple and self-evident explanation of the microwave frequency, polarization, magnetic field, mobility, power and temperature dependencies of the observed effects.