Far-IR absorption of short-period quantum wires and the transition from one to two dimensions

We investigate the far-IR absorption of short-period parallel quantum wires in a perpendicular quantizing magnetic field. The external time-dependent electric field is linearly polarized along the wire modulation. The mutual Coulomb interaction of the electrons is treated self-consistently in the ground state and in the absorption calculation within the Hartree approximation. We consider the effects of a metal gate grating coupler, with the same or with a different period as the wire modulation, on the absorption. The evolution of the magnetoplasmon in the nonlocal region where it is split into several Bernstein modes is discussed in the transition from narrow to broad wires and isolated to overlapping wires. We show that in the case of narrow and not strongly modulated wires the absorption can be directly correlated with the underlying electronic band structure.