The mesoscopic magnetron as an open quantum system

TL;DR

This paper models a mesoscopic cylindrical diode magnetron as an open quantum system, demonstrating its potential to operate as a terahertz radiation source at very small scales using effective quantum models.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum open system approach to analyze mesoscopic magnetrons, showing their viability as terahertz sources at nanoscale dimensions.

Findings

Magnetrons can operate at diameters of a few tens of magnetic lengths.

Quantum models predict sustained radiation emission at small scales.

Open quantum system treatment reveals robustness of operation.

Abstract

Motivated by the emergence of materials with mean free paths on the order of microns, we propose a novel class of solid state radiation sources based on reimplementing classical vacuum tube designs in semiconductors. Using materials with small effective masses, these devices should be able to access the terahertz range. We analyze the DC and AC operation of the simplest such device, the cylindrical diode magnetron, using effective quantum models. By treating the magnetron as an open quantum system, we show that it continues to operate as a radiation source even if its diameter is only a few tens of magnetic lengths.