Heterojunction and heterodimensional devices for optoelectronics

This article features a few optical sensory devices with basic properties that are changed by the presence of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). A photodetector based on ohmic contact to the 2DEG is first presented in which variation of the 2DEG concentration and the (transverse) electric field that causes this confinement radically changes the device behavior. Next, the same device architecture is used but two Schottky contacts replace the ohmic ones, resulting, as expected, in a vastly different device behavior.