Plasma Oscillations in an Inhomogeneous Electron Gas

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The objective of this research is to study experimentally the plasma oscillations in the electron gas confined in wide, remotely-doped AlGaAs heterostructure wells. This novel solid state plasma, with a spatially-tunable density distribution and with sufficiently high elctron mobilities, presents the opportunity to observe well-defined plasmas for temperatures below and well above the degeneracy temperature (approximately 20 K). These systems have the advantage that the potential that confines the electrons is smooth on the scale of the Thomas-Fermi screening length, meaning results can be compared with "jellium" theories that are not complicated by the strong, rapidly varying ionic potentials in bulk semiconductors and metallic plasmas. The PI plans to use visible-light scattering and far-infrared spectroscopy to probe the effects of density gradients in the electron layer on the plasma modes.