On the impact of strain on the electronic properties of InAs/GaSb quantum well systems

Abstract

Electron-hole hybridization in InAs/GaSb double quantum well structures leads to the formation of a mini band gap. We experimentally and theoretically studied the impact of strain on the transport properties of this material system. Thinned samples were mounted to piezo electric elements to exert strain along the [011] and [001] crystal directions. When the Fermi energy is tuned through the mini gap, a dramatic impact on the resistivity at the charge neutrality point is found which depends on the amount of applied external strain. In the electron and hole regimes, strain influences the Landau level structure. By analyzing the intrinsic strain from the epitaxial growth, the external strain from the piezo elements and combining our experimental results with numerical simulations of strained and unstrained quantum wells, we compellingly illustrate why the InAs/GaSb material system is regularly found to be semimetallic.

References in corpus (5)

• Valley susceptibility of an interacting two-dimensional electron system
• Low-temperature, in situ tunable, uniaxial stress measurements in semiconductors using a piezoelectric actuator
• Quadrupolar induced suppression of nuclear spin bath fluctuations in self-assembled quantum dots
• Engineering quantum spin Hall insulators by strained-layer heterostructures
• Influence of etching processes on electronic transport in mesoscopic InAs/GaSb quantum well devices

Cited by in corpus (3)

• First principles feasibility assessment of a topological insulator at the InAs/GaSb interface
• Proximity-induced superconductivity within the InAs/GaSb edge conducting state
• Impact of epitaxial strain on the topological-nontopological phase diagram and semimetallic behavior of InAs/GaSb composite quantum wells