Microwave Rectificatin of the Current at the Metal-Metal Junction for Dilute 2D Metals

TL;DR

This paper explains microwave rectification at metal-metal boundaries in dilute 2D metals using a quasiclassical transport model, attributing the effect to electron density inhomogeneity that breaks spatial symmetry.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlinear response model to explain microwave rectification caused by electron density inhomogeneity at 2D metal boundaries.

Findings

The rectification effect is due to inhomogeneity of electron density.

The model's results align with experimental observations.

Inhomogeneity breaks spatial symmetry, enabling rectification.

Abstract

Within a quasiclassical transport theory for 2D electron system we analyze a recently observed effect of microwave rectification at the boundary between two 2D metals of different carrier densities. Nonlinear response is employed to explain the effect. It is shown that the effect of rectification arises due to inhomogeneity of the electron density which breaks space symmetry of the system. The results agree with the above experiments.