Resonant magneto-optical phenomena associated with eigen-oscillations of a two-dimensional electron plasma

Magneto-optical phenomena associated with cyclotron and magnetoplasma oscillations in a homogeneous two-dimensional electron system are theoretically studied. First, the electromagnetic wave (EW) polarization conversion under uniform cyclotron resonance (CR) conditions is discussed. A shift of the polarization conversion resonance with respect to conventional CR is calculated. This shift is more pronounced for a two-dimensional system with high electron density. Particular attention is given to the EW polarization conversion under non-uniform cyclotron and magnetoplasma resonances in two-dimensional electron plasma in the attenuated total reflection (ATR) arrangement. A crossover from magnetoplasma to a non-uniform cyclotron type of resonance, which takes place when the coupling between the ATR prism fields and the two-dimensional electron system grows, is studied. At any coupling strength, the polarization conversion at the resonance reaches 100% if the electron scattering in the two-dimensional system is neglected. The conclusion is drawn that the regime of non-uniform CR is more profitable from a practical point of view since the actual electron scattering in a two-dimensional system does not greatly deteriorate a high polarization conversion at resonance. The studied phenomena can be observed on gallium arsenide heterostructures at terahertz.