Mesoscopic structures and two-dimensional hole systems in fully field effect controlled heterostructures

Two fundamental extensions to the function of previously described fully field effect two-dimensional (2D) electron heterostructures are presented. First, using the same basic heterostructure design of lithographically defined contacts overlain by both an insulating layer and top gate employed for electron systems, appropriate contact material allows a high mobility 2D hole layer to be populated. Second, a simple method for producing mesoscopic structures in these devices is presented, in which small-scale metallic patterns are placed on the heterostructure under the insulating and global gate layers which allows local carrier density tuning via the overlapping gate arrays. Example devices using these generally applicable methods are demonstrated. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.