Galvanomagnetic properties of lead-telluride quantum wells

Abstract
The first in-plane galvanomagnetic measurements on PbTe quantum wells are presented. The samples were 70-Å-wide wells sandwiched between lattice-matched PbEuSeTe layers which have 500 meV gaps. PbTe has a 187 meV gap at 0 K. The magnetoresistance and Hall effect were measured from 0 to 22 T and 0.5 to 300 K. The results can be explained if we assume that the wells are modulation doped p type to 3.7×1013 cm−2, and that there are 3×1012 cm−2 highly mobile holes which show Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations due to the splitting of size-quantized subbands into Landau levels. The influence of illumination is also shown: up to 1014 cm−2 carriers with a lifetime of the order of 102 min can be photoexcited in the structure.