Large modulation of conductance in Interdigital-Gated HEMT devices due to surface plasma wave interactions

Abstract

To investigate the presence of interactions between surface plasma waves of carriers in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure and electromagnetic space harmonic slow waves, interdigital-gated high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) devices were fabricated, and their input admittances were measured in the microwave region of 1-15 GHz. A large modulation of conductance, more than 1000mS/mm, was observed. The conductance modulation was controlled by a drain-source voltage and showed a peak at a certain frequency whose position could be controlled by changing the pitch of the interdigital gates. The observed conductance and capacitance characteristics were in good agreement with the transverse magnetic (TM) mode analysis taking into account a nonuniform field distribution along the 2DEG channel. The result seems to prove the existence of surface plasma wave interactions even under the strongly collision-dominant situation in the microwave region and provides great hope for increased interactions at THz frequencies under nearly collision-free conditions.