Aluminum arsenide cleaved-edge overgrown quantum wires

Abstract

We report conductance measurements in quantum wires made of aluminum arsenide, a heavy-mass, multi-valley one-dimensional (1D) system. Zero-bias conductance steps are observed as the electron density in the wire is lowered, with additional steps observable upon applying a finite dc bias. We attribute these steps to depopulation of successive 1D subbands. The quantum conductance is substantially reduced with respect to the anticipated value for a spin- and valley-degenerate 1D system. This reduction is consistent with disorder-induced, intra-wire backscattering which suppresses the transmission of 1D modes. Calculations are presented to demonstrate the role of strain in the 1D states of this cleaved-edge structure.

Submitted to Applied Physics Letters

References in corpus (4)

• Possible Spin Polarization in a One-Dimensional Electron Gas
• Experimental Evidence for Resonant-Tunneling in a Luttinger-Liquid
• Anomalous Conductance Quantization in Carbon Nanotubes
• Dependence of spin susceptibility of a two-dimensional electron system on the valley degree of freedom

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• Donor binding energy and thermally activated persistent photoconductivity in high mobility (001) AlAs quantum wells
• Single-valley high-mobility (110) AlAs quantum wells with anisotropic mass
• Valley degeneracy in biaxially strained aluminum arsenide quantum wells
• 1D-FFLO state in the absence of time-reversal symmetry breaking
• Theoretical study of interacting electrons in one dimension - ground states and experimental signatures