Resonant Correlation-Induced Optical Bistability in an Electron System on Liquid Helium

Abstract

We show that electrons on liquid helium display intrinsic bistability of resonant intersubband absorption. The bistability occurs for comparatively weak microwave power. The underlying giant nonlinearity of the many-electron response results from the interplay of the strong short-range electron correlations, the long relaxation time, and the multisubband character of the electron energy spectrum.