Piezoelectric effect in micromachined [001] quantum wells: Theoretical aspects

In this work, we demonstrate the ability to take adBANtage of the piezoelectric effect in systems primarily grown on [001] GaAs substrates. Such an effect can be achieved by making use of elastic relaxation of micromachined strained quantum well structures, the etching direction being carefully chosen. Shear defbrmations present at the edge of released cantilevers can produce a significant piezoelectric field.