Modulation of Noise in Submicron GaAs/AlGaAs Hall Devices by Gating

Abstract

We present a systematic characterization of fluctuations in submicron Hall devices based on GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas heterostructures at temperatures between 1.5 K to 60 K. A large variety of noise spectra, from 1/f to Lorentzian, are obtained by gating the Hall devices. The noise level can be reduced by up to several orders of magnitude with a moderate gate voltage of 0.2 V, whereas the carrier density increases less than 60% in the same range. The significant dependence of the Hall noise spectra on temperature and gate voltage is explained in terms of the switching processes related to impurities in n-AlGaAs.