A NOVEL ELECTRON-WAVE INTERFERENCE DEVICE USING MULTIATOMIC STEPS ON VICINAL GAAS-SURFACES GROWN BY METALORGANIC VAPOR-PHASE EPITAXY - INVESTIGATION OF TRANSPORT-PROPERTIES

We have studied the transport properties of novel lateral surface supe rlattice electron wave interference devices in which multiatomic steps are utilized to introduce periodic potentials into two dimensional el ectron systems. The device structure was fabricated by metalorganic va por phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on vicinal GaAs surfaces, and spontaneously formed multiatomic steps were periodically embedded at the heterojunct ion of n-AlGaAs/GaAs. Oscillations of the transconductance as a functi on of gate voltage were found in three different devices. Our simple a nalysis suggests that the oscillations found in two devices result fro m the periodic potentials induced by the multiatomic steps and coheren t electron wave interference, whereas those in the other one arise fro m random interference. Our results imply the effect of height and rand omness in the periodic potential on the characteristics of electron wa ve interference devices.