From laterally modulated two-dimensional electron gas towards artificial graphene

L. Nadvornik, M. Orlita, N. A. Goncharuk, L. Smrcka, V. Novak, V. Jurka, K. Hruska, Z. Vyborny, Z. R. Wasilewski, M. Potemski, K. Vyborny

Published 2011-04-28, updated 2011-12-16Version 3

Cyclotron resonance has been measured in far-infrared transmission of GaAs/Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As heterostructures with an etched hexagonal lateral superlattice. Non-linear dependence of the resonance position on magnetic field was observed as well as its splitting into several modes. Our explanation, based on a perturbative calculation, describes the observed phenomena as a weak effect of the lateral potential on the two-dimensional electron gas. Using this approach, we found a correlation between parameters of the lateral patterning and the created effective potential and obtain thus insights on how the electronic miniband structure has been tuned. The miniband dispersion was calculated using a simplified model and allowed us to formulate four basic criteria that have to be satisfied to reach graphene-like physics in such systems.