Dyakonov-Shur instability across the ballistic-to-hydrodynamic crossover

Abstract

We numerically solve semiclassical kinetic equations and compute the growth rate of the Dyakonov-Shur instability of a two-dimensional Fermi liquid in a finite length cavity. When electron-electron scattering is fast, we observe the well-understood hydrodynamic instability, and its disappearance due to viscous dissipation. When electron-electron scattering is negligible, we find that the instability re-emerges for certain boundary conditions, but not for others. We discuss the implications of these findings for experiments.