Damping of plasma waves in two-dimensional electron systems due to contacts

We report on the numerical study of plasma waves in two-dimensional electron systems with contacts using the kinetic electron transport model. We simulate the time- and position-dependence of plasma waves in the system by initially adding small perturbation of the electron concentration from the steady state. We demonstrate that in such a system the damping of plasma waves caused:by out of phase electrons exiting the channel through the contacts occur. We find that the damping rate is proportional to the electron average velocity and inversely proportional to the channel length. (C) 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim