Abstract

The feasibility of an optical cyclotron bistability of free electrons in vacuum as well as of conductive electrons in semiconductors is discussed. It was recently shown by us¹ that the cyclotron bistability of the free electrons can be based on the dependence of a cyclotron frequency of forced oscillations on the relativistic mass of the electron and, hence, on its momentum (or kinetic energy). It was also suggested that¹ the analogous effect could be feasible in semiconductors whose conductive electrons have a particularly strong dependence of their effective masses on energy (or momentum) of their excitation. The main advantageous features of the cyclotron bistability in semiconductors is that (i) the effective mass of electrons in some semiconductors (e.g. InSb) is very small which results in a considerable decrease of a required magnet field for a given resonant frequency, and (ii) the nonlinearity associated with conductive electrons in semiconductors is by many orders of magnitude larger than the relativistic nonlinearity of free electrons, which allows for a fairly low critical pumping intensity, even if taking into consideration a faster relaxation time in semiconductors.

© 1983 Optical Society of America