Physical Principles of the Amplification of Electromagnetic Radiation Due to Negative Electron Masses in a Semiconductor Superlattice

TL;DR

This paper explores how negative effective electron mass in semiconductor superlattices can enable amplification and generation of terahertz radiation without negative differential conductivity, based on fundamental physical principles.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of negative effective mass amplification in superlattices and explains its potential for terahertz radiation generation.

Findings

Negative electron effective mass can lead to electromagnetic amplification.

Amplification occurs even without negative differential conductivity.

Potential for terahertz radiation sources in superlattices.

Abstract

In a superlattice placed in crossed electric and magnetic fields, under certain conditions, the inversion of electron population can appear at which the average energy of electrons is above the middle of the miniband and the effective mass of the electron is negative. This is the implementation of the negative effective mass amplifier and generator (NEMAG) in the superlattice. It can result in the amplification and generation of terahertz radiation even in the absence of negative differential conductivity.