Electric field induced parallel conduction in gallium arsenide/aluminum gallium arsenide heterostructures

A new mechanism to understand time-dependent features in the conduction of a two-dimensional electron gas (2 DEG) in high electric fields is proposed and discussed. The mechanism is based on the idea that not only the properties of the GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure have to be included, but also the properties of the transition from the ohmic contact to the heterostructure. We show that the ohmic contact to the heterostructure is fundamentally different from the contact to a bulk semiconductor. In low electric fields electrons cannot move from the contact into the AlGaAs since the conduction band normally lies above the Fermi level. However, when high enough electric fields are applied, the barrier between the contact and AlGaAs is pulled down, allowing conduction in both the AlGaAs and the 2 DEG. We propose a model, in which time-dependent phenomena in the conduction of the 2 DEG can be associated with trapping and detrapping of charge carriers in the AlGaAs. Time-resolved experiments are shown which confirm this hypothesis.