CURRENT DRIVEN PLASMA INSTABILITY IN QUANTUM WIRES

We investigate current driven plasma instabilities in quantum wires. We find that such instabilities might be observed in such systems for experimentally achievable drift velocities. We also find, that the threshold drift velocity for this instability is proportional to the Fermi velocity, as was the case in higher dimensional systems. Lowering the Fermi energy of the plasma is thus advantageous for generating these instabilities and possible device applications. © 1990.