Paper detail

Low-temperature transport properties of a two-dimensional electron gas with additional impurities

We investigate the effect due to background impurities embedded in the region of two-dimensional electron gases to the magnetotransport. These impurities are achieved by homogeneously incorporating Si atoms in single quantum wells of high quality GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. Several materials were grown this way with different densities of Si atoms. At low temperature the mobility decreases monotonically with increasing impurity density. In materials with incorporated impurities, effects are observed with increasing temperatures. On the one hand, a minimum in mobility appears, marking a transition between scattering enhancement due to acoustic phonon and mobility enhancement due to impurity driven conductivity. The temperature at which the transition takes place decreases with increasing impurity density. On the other hand, the incorporated impurities induce a non-monotonic temperature dependence of the electron density. The magnitude of this variation rises with increasing impurity density. The theory of electron-electron interaction correction to the conductivity alone fails to explain our results.