title: Terahertz Bloch oscillator with a modulated bias.
abstract: Electrons performing Bloch oscillations in an energy band of a dc-biased superlattice in the presence of weak dissipation can potentially generate THz fields at room temperature. The realization of such a Bloch oscillator is a long-standing problem due to the instability of a homogeneous electric field in conditions of negative differential conductivity. We establish the theoretical feasibility of stable THz gain in a long superlattice device in which the bias is quasistatically modulated by microwave fields. The modulation waveforms must have at least two harmonics in their spectra.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Sciences, P. O. Box 3000, FI-90014 University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hyart
authors.forename: Natalia V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Alexeeva
authors.forename: Jussi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mattas
authors.forename: Kirill N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Alekseev