Resistivity enhancement in quasiperiodic unidirectional lateral superlattices

Strong enhancement in the zero-magnetic-field resistivity, followed by negative magnetoresistance, has been observed for two-dimensional electron gases by introducing weak quasiperiodic (Fibonacci) potential modulation having a length scale close to the Fermi wavelength. The extra resistivity increases with decreasing length scale notwithstanding the concomitant decrease in the modulation amplitude, and also with decreasing temperature and increasing electron concentration. The enhancement is qualitatively explained by backscattering due to Bragg reflections from the quasiperiodic superlattices characterized by a dense set of reciprocal lattice vectors.