Corner overgrowth: Bending a high mobility two-dimensional electron system by 90 degrees

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel epitaxial growth technique called corner overgrowth that creates a high-mobility 2D electron system bent at a 90-degree angle, enabling new quantum heterostructures.

Contribution

The paper presents a new epitaxial growth method for fabricating atomically sharp corner-junction quantum wells with high-mobility 2DESs, expanding capabilities beyond existing cleaved-edge overgrowth techniques.

Findings

High-mobility 2DES exhibits fractional quantum Hall effect on both facets.

Lossless edge-channel conduction confirms continuum of electrons across the corner.

The technique enables new embedded quantum heterostructures.

Abstract

Introducing an epitaxial growth technique called corner overgrowth, we fabricate a quantum confinement structure consisting of a high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction overgrown on top of an ex-situ cleaved substrate corner. The resulting corner-junction quantum-well heterostructure effectively bends a two-dimensional electron system (2DES) at an atomically sharp $90^{\rm o}$ angle. The high-mobility 2DES demonstrates fractional quantum Hall effect on both facets. Lossless edge-channel conduction over the corner confirms a continuum of 2D electrons across the junction, consistent with Schroedinger-Poisson calculations of the electron distribution. This growth technique differs distinctly from cleaved-edge overgrowth and enables a complementary class of new embedded quantum heterostructures.