  Detailed analysis of the commensurability oscillation (CO) has been performed
on unidirectional lateral superlattices with periods ranging from a=92 to 184
nm. Fourier analysis reveals the second (and the third) harmonics along with
the fundamental oscillation for a>=138 nm (184 nm) at low-enough temperature,
evincing the presence of corresponding harmonics in the profile of the
potential modulation. The harmonics manifest themselves in CO with demagnified
amplitude due to the low-pass filtering action of the thermal damping factor;
with a suitable consideration of the damping effect, the harmonics of the
modulation potential are found to have the amplitudes V_2 and V_3 up to roughly
30% of that of the fundamental component V_1, despite the small ratio of the
period a to the depth d = 99 nm of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) from
the surface. The dependence of V_n on a indicates that the fundamental
component originates at the surface, while the higher harmonics arise from the
effect of the strain that penetrates down into subsurface. The manipulation of
high harmonics thus provides a useful technique to introduce small length-scale
modulation into high-mobility 2DEGs located deep inside the wafer.
