Piezoelectric mechanism for the orientation of stripe structures in two-dimensional electron systems

A piezoelectric mechanism for the orientation of stripes in two-dimensional electron systems in GaAs-AlGaAs heterostructures is considered. It is shown that when the anisotropy of the elastic constants and the influence of the boundary of the sample are taken into account, the theory gives an orientation of the stripes along [110] direction, in agreement with the experimental data. For a two-layer system an effect is found wherein a reorientation of the stripe structure along the [100] direction occurs when the period of the structure exceeds the distance between layers. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1063- 777X(00)00708-8].