Negative magnetoresistance in silicon doped AlAs-GaAs short period superlattices

We report the negative magnetoresistance effect observed in GaAs-AlAs short period superlattices doped selectively in GaAs or in AlAs or doped uniformly. This doping technique introduces deep donor states with different thermal activation energies. Consequently, the low temperature electron concentration is different in samples doped at the same silicon concentration. We find the magnetic correction to the conductivity increasing with the free carrier density. The low magnetic field data are interpreted in the framework of a weak localization model derived from the Kawabata theory in 3D anisotropic systems. The theory of effective mass in superlattices is applied and we find that the inelastic scattering time does not depend on the doping modulation.