Effect of a charged scanned probe microscope tip on a subsurface electron gas

Using a cryogenic scanned probe microscope (SPM) one can locally modify the sheet density of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), and image the ballistic flow of electrons through a point contact in the 2DEG located beneath the surface of a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. We calculate the capacitively induced change in sheet density when a charged SPM tip is brought into contact with a semiconductor heterostructure containing a two-dimensional electron gas. A simple scattering model, based on a local change in sheet density, is used to analyze experimental data taken with the SPM method described above. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited