Electric Current Induced by Microwave Stark Effect of Electrons on Liquid Helium

TL;DR

This paper explores how microwave Stark effects induced by combined Terahertz and Gigahertz waves can generate detectable electric currents in electrons on liquid helium, offering a new method for THz detection.

Contribution

It introduces a novel frequency-mixed effect involving THz and GHz waves in a cryogenic electron-liquid helium system, revealing effective coupling at a critical detuning point.

Findings

Demonstrates coupling between THz and GHz waves at a critical detuning

Shows generation of low-frequency ac currents via this coupling

Proposes an alternative THz detection method

Abstract

We propose a frequency-mixed effect of Terahertz (THz) and Gigahertz (GHz) electromagnetic waves in the cryogenic system of electrons floating on liquid helium surface. The THz wave is near-resonant with the transition frequency between the lowest two levels of surface state electrons. The GHz wave does not excite the transitions but generates a GHz-varying Stark effect with the symmetry-breaking eigenstates of electrons on liquid helium. We show an effective coupling between the inputting THz and GHz waves, which appears at the critical point that the detuning between electrons and THz wave is equal to the frequency of GHz wave. By this coupling, the THz and GHz waves cooperatively excite electrons and generate the low-frequency ac currents along the perpendicular direction of liquid helium surface to be experimentally detected by the image-charge approach [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 086801 (2019)]. This offers an alternative approach for THz detections.