Weak antilocalization and spin-orbit interaction in a two-dimensional electron gas

Abstract

We have investigated the weak antilocalization effect in a high-density two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in an AlGaN/GaN heterostructure. The data were analyzed using the most representative theories on the weak antilocalization (WAL) correction to magnetoconductivity. The spin-orbit interaction (SOI) strength and the phase-coherence time were extracted from the fitting to the experimental data. We found that the use of the WAL peak analysis appears to be a reliable way of investigating the SOI strength and that the dependence on charge concentration revealed by the WAL data as reported in the literature can be considered a trustworthy experimental description of the SOI behavior in the AlGaN/GaN 2DEG system.