Band gap opening and charge modulation in AlGaAs lateral structures obtained by organized epitaxy

Quantum wires superlattices have been grown on GaAs vicinal surfaces. Their electrical resistance anisotropy, their low-field magnetoresistance (for current flow perpendicular to the wires) and, in the magnetic quantum limit, the van Hove singularities of the Landau bands, and the very sudden enhancement of the spin splitting above a critical field, all demonstrate unambiguously that a strong low-disordered periodic lateral potential modulation can be achieved as a result of significant atomic ordering by the steps.