Conduction electrons in acceptor-doped GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructures: a review

摘要

We review magneto-optical and magneto-transport effects in GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructures doped in GaAlAs barriers with donors, providing two-dimensional (2D) electron gas (2DEG) in GaAs quantum wells (QWS), and additionally doped with smaller amounts of acceptors (mostly Be atoms) in the vicinity of 2DEG. One may also deal with residual acceptors (mostly C atoms). The behavior of such systems in the presence of a magnetic field differs appreciably from those doped in the vicinity of 2DEG with donors. Three subjects related to the acceptor-doped heterostructures are considered. First is the problem of bound states of conduction electrons confined to the vicinity of negatively charged acceptors by the joint effect of a QW and an external magnetic field parallel to the growth direction. A variational theory of such states is presented, demonstrating that an electron turning around a repulsive center has discrete energies above the corresponding Landau levels. Experimental evidence for the discrete electron energies comes from the work on interband photo-magneto-luminescence, intraband cyclotron resonance and quantum magneto-transport (the Quantum Hall and Shubnikov-de Haas effects). An electron rain-down effect at weak electric fields and a boil-off effect at strong electric fields are introduced. It is demonstrated, both theoretically and experimentally, that a negatively charged acceptor can localize more than one electron. The second subject describes experiment and theory of asymmetric quantized Hall and Shubnikov-de Haas plateaus in acceptor-doped GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructures. It is shown that the main features of the plateau asymmetry can be attributed to asymmetric density of Landau states in the presence of acceptors. However, at high magnetic fields, the rain-down effect is also at work. The third subject deals with the so-called disorder modes (DMs) in the cyclotron resonance of conduction electrons. The DMs originate from random distributions of negatively charged acceptor ions whose potentials provide effective QWs trapping the conduction electrons. This results in an upward energy shift of the DM as compared to the cyclotron resonance. Theory and experimental characteristics of DMs are discussed. A similarity between acceptor-doped heterostructures and 2D systems with antidots is briefly described. In conclusion, we mention weaker points in the research on acceptor-doped heterostructures and indicate possible subjects for further investigation. An effort has been made to quote all important works on the subject.