A study of parallel conduction and quantum Hall effect in GaInAs- AlInAs heterojunctions using magnetotransport measurements under high hydrostatic pressure.
01 January 1987
Hydrostatic pressure (up to 16 kbar) has been used to investigate the transport properties of GaInAs-AlInAs heterojunctions in the range 0-18 tesla and 4.2 - 300K. We demonstrate that a parallel conduction process is the cause of the absence of plateaus in the Hall effect at low pressure. The hydrostatic pressure acts on the Si donor level in AlInAs, reducing the free electron concentration in this layer and the charge transfer to the quantum well. The conductivity of the AlInAs layer becomes negligible at ~- 7 kbar, which leads to the first observation of quantum Hall plateaus in this system.