In-plane magnetic field-dependent magnetoresistance of gated asymmetric double quantum wells

Abstract

We have investigated experimentally the magnetoresistance of strongly asymmetric double wells. The structures were prepared by inserting a thin Al 0.3Ga 0.7As barrier into the GaAs buffer layer of a standard modulation-doped GaAs/Al 0.3Ga 0.7As heterostructure. The resulting double-well system consists of a nearly rectangular well and of a triangular well coupled by tunneling through the thin barrier. With a proper choice of the barrier parameters one can control the occupancy of the two wells and of the two lowest (bonding and antibonding) subbands. The electron properties can be further influenced by applying front- or back-gate voltage.