Quantum oscillations and interference effects in strained n- and p-type modulation doped GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells

Abstract

We have performed magnetoresistance measurements on n- and p-type modulation doped GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well (QW) structures in both the weak (B < 0.08 T) and the high magnetic field (up to 18 T) at 75 mK and 6 K. We observe that the quantum oscillations in and quantum Hall effect (QHE) plateaus in are affected from the presence of the nitrogen in the III–V lattice. The enhancement of N-related scatterings and electron effective mass with increasing nitrogen causes lower electron mobility and higher two-dimensional (2D) electron density, leading to suppressed QHE plateaus in up to 7 T at 6 K. The Shubnikov de Haas (SdH) oscillations develop at lower magnetic fields for higher mobility samples at 6 K and the amplitude of SdH oscillations decreases with increasing nitrogen composition. The well-pronounced QHE plateaus are observed at 75 mK and at higher magnetic fields up to 18 T, for the p-type sample. For n-type samples, the observed anomalies in the characteristic of QHE is attributed the nitrogen-related disorders and overlapping of fluctuating Landau levels. The low magnetic field measurements at 75 mK reveal that the n-type samples exhibit weak antilocalization, whereas weak localization is observed for the p-type sample. The observation of weak antilocalization is an indication of strong electron spin–orbit interactions. The low field magnetoresistance traces are used to extract the spin coherence, phase coherence and elastic scattering times as well Rashba parameters and spin-splitting energy. The calculated Rashba parameters for nitrogen containing samples reveal that the nitrogen composition is a significant parameter to determine the degree of the spin–orbit interactions. Consequently, GaInNAs-based QW structures with various nitrogen compositions can be beneficial to adjust the spin–orbit coupling strength and may be used as a candidate for spintronics applications.