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Microwave-Absorption-Induced Heating of Surface State Electrons on Liquid 3He

A resonance-induced change in the resistivity of the surface state electrons (SSE) exposed to the microwave (MW) radiation is observed. The MW frequency corresponds to the transition energy between two lowest Rydberg energy levels. All measurements are done with electrons over liquid 3He in a temperature range 0.45-0.65 K, in which the electron relaxation time and the MW absorption linewidth are determined by collisions with helium vapor atoms. The input MW power is varied by two orders of magnitude, and the resistivity is always found to increase. This effect is attributed to the heating of electrons with the resonance MW radiation. The temperature and the momentum relaxation rate of the hot electrons are calculated as a function of the MW power in the cell, and the Rabi frequency is determined from the comparison of the theoretical result with the experiment. In addition, the broadening of the absorption signal caused by the heating is studied experimentally, and the results are found to be in good agreement with our calculations.