Determination of the transport lifetime limiting scattering rate in InSb/AlxIn1−x Sb quantum wells using optical surface microscopy

We report magnetotransport measurements of InSb/Al1−xInxSb quantum well structures at low temperature (3 K), with evidence for 3 characteristic regimes of electron carrier density and mobility. We observe characteristic surface structure using differential interference contrast DIC (Nomarski) optical imaging, and through use of image analysis techniques, we are able to extract a representative average grain feature size for this surface structure. From this we deduce a limiting low temperature scattering mechanism not previously incorporated in transport lifetime modelling of this system, with this improved model giving strong agreement with standard low temperature Hall measurements. We have demonstrated that the mobility in such a material is critically limited by quality from the buffer layer growth, as opposed to fundamental material scattering mechanisms. This suggests that the material has immense potential for mobility improvement over that reported to date.