Effects of oblique wave propagation on the nonlinear plasma resonance in the two-dimensional channel of the Dyakonov–Shur detector

► Hydrodynamic model for plasma waves in HEMT conduction channel was derived. ► Temperature dependence of hydrodynamic transport coefficients was obtained. ► Dyakonov–Shur instability in two dimensions was studied. ► The formation of shock waves at the instability threshold was shown. In the Dyakonov–Shur terahertz detector the conduction channel of a heterostructure High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) is used as a plasma wave resonator for density oscillations in electron gas. Nonlinearities in the plasma wave propagation lead to a constant source-to-drain voltage, providing the detector output. In this paper, we start with the quasi-classical Boltzmann equation and derive the hydrodynamic model with temperature dependent transport coefficients for a two-dimensional viscous flow. This derivation allows us to obtain the parameters for the hydrodynamic model from the band-structure of the HEMT channel. The treatment here also includes the energy balance equation into the analysis. By numerical solution of the hydrodynamic equations with a non-zero boundary current we evaluate the detector response function and obtain the temperature dependence of the plasma resonance. The present treatment extends the theory of Dyakonov–Shur plasma resonator and detector to account for the temperature dependence of viscosity, the effects of oblique wave propagation on detector response, and effects of boundary current in two-dimensional flow on quality of the plasma resonance. The numerical results are given for a GaN channel. We also investigated a stability of source to drain flow and formation of shock waves.