Visualization of Oscillatory Electron Dynamics on the Surface of Liquid Helium

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to visualize and analyze the oscillatory electron dynamics on liquid helium surface by measuring signals from electrodes, revealing magnetoplasmon behavior influenced by gravity waves.

Contribution

It introduces a multi-scale, time-resolved analysis technique to reconstruct electron surface dynamics, considering three-dimensional effects and phase coherence between electrode signals.

Findings

Magnetoplasmons modulated by surface gravity waves observed.

Surface electron dynamics reconstructed from electrode phase data.

Analysis highlights the importance of 3D effects in electron oscillations.

Abstract

We have measured signals induced in 5 Corbino electrodes by spontaneous oscillations of 2D surface electrons on liquid helium at $\sim$0.3\,K, with a perpendicular magnetic field and microwave radiation. Analysis using multi-scale, time-resolved, methods yields results consistent with magnetoplasmons modulated by slow surface gravity waves, with the latter requiring consideration of the 3rd dimension. Calculation of phase differences and phase coherences between signals from differently-positioned pairs of electrodes enables reconstruction of the electron dynamics on the helium surface.