Evidence of the virtual Anderson transition in a narrow impurity band of p-GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells: $\epsilon_4$ conductivity and electric breakdown at low temperatures

TL;DR

This paper provides experimental evidence of a virtual Anderson transition in highly doped p-GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells, revealing low-temperature conduction and breakdown phenomena linked to impurity band delocalization.

Contribution

It demonstrates the occurrence of a virtual Anderson transition in narrow impurity bands of quantum wells, supported by conductivity activation and nonlinear breakdown behavior at low temperatures.

Findings

Activated low-temperature conductivity with low activation energies.

Observation of S-shaped I-V curves indicating breakdown at low fields.

Evidence of impact ionization from localized to delocalized states.

Abstract

In highly doped uncompensated p-type layers within the central part of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells at low temperatures we observed an activated behavior of the conductivity with low activation energies (1-3) meV which can not be ascribed to standard mechanisms. We attribute this behavior to the delocalization of hole states near the maximum of the narrow impurity band in the sense of the Anderson transition. Low temperature conduction $\epsilon_4$ is supported by an activation of minority carriers - electrons (resulting from a weak compensation by back-ground defects) - from the Fermi level to the band of delocalized states mentioned above. The corresponding behavior can be specified as virtual Anderson transition. Low temperature transport ($<4$ K) exhibits also strong nonlinearity of a breakdown type characterized in particular by S-shaped I-V curve. The nonlinearity is observed in unexpectedly low fields ($<10$ V/cm). Such a behavior can be explained by a simple model implying an impact ionization of the localized states of the minority carriers mentioned above to the band of Anderson-delocalized states.