Directed transport born from chaos in asymmetric antidot structures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that polarized microwave radiation can induce directed electron transport in asymmetric antidot superlattices, with a numerical approach showing high currents at low power, opening new control possibilities.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical method to analyze microwave-induced ratchet effects in asymmetric antidot structures with chaotic electron dynamics.

Findings

High electron currents achievable at low microwave power

Directed transport depends on system parameters

Chaotic dynamics enable ratchet effect in the studied system

Abstract

It is shown that a polarized microwave radiation creates directed transport in an asymmetric antidot superlattice in a two dimensional electron gas. A numerical method is developed that allows to establish the dependence of this ratchet effect on several parameters relevant for real experimental studies. It is applied to the concrete case of a semidisk Galton board where the electron dynamics is chaotic in the absence of microwave driving. The obtained results show that high currents can be reached at a relatively low microwave power. This effect opens new possibilities for microwave control of transport in asymmetric superlattices.