Emergence of domains and nonlinear transport in the zero-resistance state

TL;DR

This paper investigates the zero-resistance state in 2D electron systems under microwave radiation and magnetic fields, revealing phase transitions, domain formation, and residual resistance through theoretical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed phase diagram of the domain state, identifying first- and second-order transitions and analyzing the residual negative resistance.

Findings

Phase diagram with multiple transition types

Existence of residual negative resistance

Conditions for domain and homogeneous states

Abstract

We study transport in the domain state, the so-called zero-resistance state, that emerges in a two-dimensional electron system in which the combined action of microwave radiation and magnetic field produces a negative absolute conductivity. We show that the voltage-biased system has a rich phase diagram in the system size and voltage plane, with second- and first-order transitions between the domain and homogeneous states for small and large voltages, respectively. We find the residual negative dissipative resistance in the stable domain state.