High-frequency effects of ballistic electron transport in semiconductors

The response of a semiconductor to a high-frequency electric field is studied using a simple method of electron transport which includes both ballistic and dissipative effects. Ballistic motion appears as an inductive reactance. The significance of ballistic transport can be quantitatively expressed by the Q of the free-carrier plasma resonance. It is shown that the condition Q > 1 should hold for high-purity GaAs at low temperatures and that this condition could be verified by measurements at frequencies well below the plasma frequency.