Effect of dc and ac excitations on the longitudinal resistance of a two-dimensional electron gas in highly doped GaAs quantum wells

Abstract

Linear ac $(888\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{Hz})$ resistance of highly mobile two-dimensional electrons in GaAs heavily doped quantum wells is studied at different magnitudes of dc and ac $(10\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{KHz}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{to}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}20\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GHz})$ excitations. In the dc excitation regime the differential resistance oscillates with the dc current and external magnetic field similar to that observed earlier in $\mathrm{Al}\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}∕\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ heterostructures [C. L. Yang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 076801 (2002)]. At external ac excitations the resistance is also found to be oscillating with the magnetic field. However the form of the oscillations is considerably different from the dc case. We show that at frequency below $100\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{KHz}$ the difference is the result of a specific average of the dc differential resistance during the period of the external ac excitations.