Pendulum limit, chaos and phase-locking in the dynamics of ac-driven semiconductor superlattices

TL;DR

This paper models the nonlinear dynamics of ac-driven semiconductor superlattices as a damped, forced pendulum, analyzing chaos, phase-locking, and temperature effects to understand complex voltage states.

Contribution

It introduces a pendulum-based analytical framework for superlattice dynamics, revealing conditions for chaos and phase-locking phenomena.

Findings

Conditions for transition to chaos are derived analytically.

Temperature influences the stability of phase-locked states.

Fractional dc voltage states are explained by pendulum phase-locking.

Abstract

We describe a limiting case when nonlinear dynamics of an ac-driven semiconductor superlattice in the miniband transport regime is governed by a periodically forced and damped pendulum. We find analytically the conditions for a transition to chaos and consider an influence of temperature on the effect. We also discuss fractional dc voltage states in a superlattice originating from phase-locked states of the pendulum.