Size-dependent Giant-magnetoresistance in Millimeter Scale GaAs/AlGaAs 2D Electron Devices

Large changes in the electrical resistance induced by the application of a small magnetic field are potentially useful for device-applications. Such Giant Magneto-Resistance (GMR) effects also provide new insights into the physical phenomena involved in the associated electronic transport. This study examines a ‘‘bell-shape’’ negative GMR that grows inmagnitude with decreasing temperatures inmm-wide devices fabricated from the high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs 2-Dimensional Electron System (2DES). Experiments show that the span of this magnetoresistance on the magnetic-field-axis increases with decreasing device width, W, while there is no concurrent Hall resistance, Rxy, correction. A multi-conduction model, including negative diagonalconductivity, and non-vanishing off-diagonal conductivity, reproduces experimental observations. The results suggest that a size effect in the mm-wide 2DES with mm-scale electron mean-free-paths is responsible for the observed ‘‘non-ohmic’’ size-dependent negative GMR