Short period superlattices under hydrostatic pressure

Abstract

Hydrostatic pressure (0–13 kbar) has been used to probe the Bloch transport in GaAs AlAs and Ga 0.47In 0.53As Al 0.48In 0.52As short-period superlattices between 77 K and room temperature. We show that for both types of superlattices, the width of the lowest Γ conduction miniband decreases with increasing pressure due to the increase of the effective mass. Moreover, in GaAs AlAs short period superlattices, an additional effect of the increasing pressure is the change of the relative energy separation between the lowest Γ miniband and the lowest X states and the resulting transfer of carriers from Γ to X.