AFM local oxidation nanopatterning of a high mobility shallow 2D hole gas

Recently developed AFM local anodic oxidation (LAO) technique offers a convenient way of patterning nanodevices, but imposes even more stringent requirements on the underlying quantum well structure. We developed a new very shallow quantum well design which allows the depth and density of the 2D gas to be independently controlled during the growth. A high mobility (0.5 10^6 cm^2/Vs at 4.2 K) 2D hole gas just 350A below the surface is demonstrated. A quantum point contact, fabricated by AFM LAO nanopatterning from this wafer, shows 9 quantum steps at 50 mK.