Quantum Phenomena in Semiconductor Structures
Abstract
We have commenced experiments aimed at producing a metal pattern on the AlGaAs of an AlGaAs-GaAs modulation doped heterojunction. This will enable us to investigate details of the transport when the effective sample length is considerably less than the scattering mean free path. Many of the proposed experiments of this grant concern one dimensional effects and we have concentrated (during this last period) on the energy levels in narrow modulation doped electron channels in AlGaAs-GaAs heterojunctions. Previously we demonstrated the existence of disorder-induced, one-dimensional conductivity corrections in a narrow-channel electron gas within a split-gate GaAs:AlGaAs heterojunction field-effect transistor. At temperatures such that the phase- relaxation (inelastic) length and the interaction length are greater than the channel width, the quantum corrections to the conductivity become one dimensional. We have now investigated the effects of a large, transverse, magnetic field on the conductivity when the channel is narrow. A WKB calculation was performed which shows that a magnetic-field-induced depopulation of the one- dimensional subbands occurs. The mobility in this system is much higher than in other quasi 1D systems so that lifetime broadening of electronic subbands approx equal Tau is sufficiently small for subband depopulation to be directly observed as structure in the magnetoconductance. Here Tau is the elastic lifetime.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA196605
Entities
People
- M. Pepper
Organizations
- University of Cambridge