Oxides such as LiNbO3, PbTiO3, etc. have large polarization effects arising from the ferroelectric and piezoelectric effects. Recent work on nitride heterostructures has shown that polar charge can be used to substitute for dopant charge and controlled to create a two-dimensional electron (and hole) gas, resulting in ohmic contacts and diode like current-voltage characteristics. In this paper, we examine the potential of using ferroelectrics with traditional semiconductors for applications in novel electronic devices. In particular, we examine their use in creating very high sheet charge densities of mobile charge and tailorable current-voltage characteristics. It is seen that owing to hysteresis based effects in the ferroelectric layer, the direction of variation of voltage has a marked effect on the charge induced as well as the variation of that charge with voltage. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.