Demonstration of high sensitivity of microwave-induced resistance oscillations to circular polarization

Abstract

We demonstrate that the long-debated immunity of the microwave-induced resistance oscillations (MIRO) to the sense of circular polarization is in fact not an inherent property of this phenomenon in solid-state two-dimensional electron systems (2DES): We detect an up to 30 times larger MIRO signal for the cyclotron resonance (CR) active helicity, fully consistent with the concurrently measured transmission and the deduced CR shape of the Drude absorption. Using a 2DES as a sensitive sensor of the actual polarization state, we further study extrinsic near-field effects capable of producing an apparent immunity of the photoresponse.