Low-temperature illumination of a two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs quantum wells is known to greatly improve the quality of high-field magnetotransport. The improvement is known to occur even when the carrier density and mobility remain unchanged, but what exactly causes it remains unclear. Here, we investigate the effect of illumination on microwave photoresistance in low magnetic fields. We find that the amplitude of microwave-induced resistance oscillations grows dramatically after illumination. Dingle analysis reveals that this growth reflects a substantial increase in the single-particle (quantum) lifetime, which likely originates from the light-induced redistribution of charge enhancing the screening capability of the doping layers.

@en

We report on microwave-induced resistance oscillations (MIROs) in a tunable-density 30-nm-wide GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well. We find that the MIRO amplitude increases dramatically with carrier density. Our analysis shows that the anticipated increase in the effective microwave power and quantum lifetime with density is not sufficient to explain the observed growth of the amplitude. We further observe that the fundamental oscillation extrema move towards cyclotron resonance with increasing density, which also contradicts theoretical predictions. These findings reveal that the density dependence is not properly captured by existing theories, calling for further studies.@en