We study theoretically the low-temperature electronic transport property of a straight quantum wire under the irradiation of a finite-range transversely polarized external terahertz (THz) electromagnetic (EM) field. Using the freeelectron model and the scattering matrix approach, we show an unusual behaviour of the electronic transmission of this system. A sharp step-structure appears in the electronic transmission probability as the EM field strength increases to a threshold value when a coherent EM field is applied. We demonstrate that this effect physically comes from the inelastic scattering of electrons with lateral photons through intersubband transitions.
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