The goal of this one year Small Grant for Exploratory Research is to explore the possibility of developing a novel type of microwave detector, based on quasi-one-dimensional conductors like TaS3 and K0.3Mo03 which exhibits metal to semiconductor transition around 200K. In the low temperature phase the compounds have nonlinear electrical response at low electric fields due to formation of charge density waves. Recently, it has been discovered that a novel type of non-linearity appears in these compounds around liquid helium temperatures. The change in the differential resistance is very abrupt and large, and it would appear to offer excellent mixing characteristics for low intensity electromagnetic waves. The principal investigators will attempt to use the sharp nonlinearity of the electrical response for the detection of microwave signals in the frequency range of 10GHz to 100GHz. They will explore the properties of the compounds in the presence of combined DC and microwave electric fields. If microwave detection proves to be feasible, they will compare the characteristics of these compounds to that of established microwave detectors.
