Electron transport and optical properties of InGaAs quantum wells with quasi-periodic ( L0∼30 nm) interface corrugation grown on vicinal (1 1 1)B GaAs

Abstract

We have grown InGaAs quantum wells (QWs) with quasi-periodic interface corrugation on (1 1 1)B misoriented GaAs substrates and studied their transport and optical properties. By atomic force microscopy the corrugation is found to be multiatomic steps of about 30 nm in period and 2 nm in height which lie along the 〈1 0−1〉 direction. Electron mobilities μ across the steps at 4.2 K depend strongly on the electron concentration N s, being proportional to N s 3.3, and are far smaller than μ along the steps by a factor of 5–10. By comparing these data with theory, μ– N s characteristics are roughly explained by taking into account both periodic and random scattering components of interface corrugation. Optical properties of a QW with corrugation are also discussed.