Light-Hole Gate-Defined Spin-Orbit Qubit

The selective confinement of light-holes (LHs) is demonstrated by introducing a low-dimensional system consisting of highly tensile-strained Ge quantum well enabling the design of an ultrafast gate-defined spin qubit under the electric dipole spin resonance. The qubit size-dependent $g$-factor and dipole moment are mapped, and the parameters inducing their modulation are discussed. It is found that the LH qubit dipole moment is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of the canonical heavy-hole qubit. This behavior originates from the significant spin splitting resulting from the combined action of large cubic and linear Rashba spin-orbit interactions that are peculiar to LHs. The qubit relaxation rate is also affected by the strong spin-orbit interaction and follows typically a $B^7$ behavior. The proposed all-group IV, direct bandgap LH qubit provides an effective platform for a scalable qubit-optical photon interface sought-after for long-range entanglement distribution and quantum networks

Mid-Infrared Optical Spin Injection and Coherent Control

The optical injection of charge and spin currents are investigated in Ge$_{1-x}$Sn$_{x}$ semiconductors as a function of Sn content. These emerging silicon-compatible materials enable the modulation of these processes across the entire mid-infrared range. Under the independent particle approximation, the one- and two-photon interband absorption processes are elucidated, and the evolution of the coherent control is discussed for three different polarization configurations. To evaluate the contribution of high-energy transitions, a full-zone 30-band k$\cdot$p is employed in the calculations. It was found that, besides the anticipated narrowing of the direct gap and the associated shift of the absorption to longer wavelengths, incorporating Sn in Ge also increases the one-photon degree of spin polarization (DSP) at the $E_1$ resonance. Moreover, as the Sn content increases, the magnitude of the response tensors near the band edge exhibits an exponential enhancement. This behavior can be attributed to the Sn incorporation-induced decrease in the carrier effective masses. This trend appears to hold also at the $E_1$ resonance for pure spin current injection, at least at low Sn compositions. The two-photon DSP at the band edge exceeds the value in Ge to reach 60 % at a Sn content above 14 %. These results demonstrate that Ge$_{1-x}$Sn$_{x}$ semiconductors can be exploited to achieve the quantum coherent manipulation in the molecular fingerprint region relevant to quantum sensing.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, with a Supporting Material fil

Combined Iodine- and Sulfur-based Treatments for an Effective Passivation of GeSn Surface

GeSn alloys are metastable semiconductors that have been proposed as building blocks for silicon-integrated short-wave and mid-wave infrared photonic and sensing platforms. Exploiting these semiconductors requires, however, the control of their epitaxy and their surface chemistry to reduce non-radiative recombination that hinders the efficiency of optoelectronic devices. Herein, we demonstrate that a combined sulfur- and iodine-based treatments yields effective passivation of Ge and Ge0.9Sn0.1 surfaces. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements were used to investigate the dynamics of surface stability and track the reoxidation mechanisms. Our analysis shows that the largest reduction in oxide after HI treatment, while HF+(NH4)2S results in a lower re-oxidation rate. A combined HI+(NH4)2S treatment preserves the lowest oxide ratio <10 % up to 1 hour of air exposure, while less than half of the initial oxide coverage is reached after 4 hours. These results highlight the potential of S- and I-based treatments in stabilizing the GeSn surface chemistry thus enabling a passivation method that is compatible with materials and device processing

3-D Atomic Mapping of Interfacial Roughness and its Spatial Correlation Length in sub-10 nm Superlattices

The interfacial abruptness and uniformity in heterostructures are critical to control their electronic and optical properties. With this perspective, this work demonstrates the 3-D atomistic-level mapping of the roughness and uniformity of buried epitaxial interfaces in Si/SiGe superlattices with a layer thickness in the 1.5-7.5 nm range. Herein, 3-D atom-by-atom maps were acquired and processed to generate iso-concentration surfaces highlighting local fluctuations in content at each interface. These generated surfaces were subsequently utilized to map the interfacial roughness and its spatial correlation length. The analysis revealed that the root mean squared roughness of the buried interfaces in the investigated superlattices is sensitive to the growth temperature with a value varying from about 0.2 nm (+/- 13%) to about 0.3 nm (+/- 11.5%) in the temperature range of 500-650 Celsius. The estimated horizontal correlation lengths were found to be 8.1 nm (+/- 5.8%) at 650 Celsius and 10.1 nm (+/- 6.2%) at 500 Celsius. Additionally, reducing the growth temperature was found to improve the interfacial abruptness, with 30 % smaller interfacial width is obtained at 500 Celsius. This behavior is attributed to the thermally activated atomic exchange at the surface during the heteroepitaxy. Finally, by testing different optical models with increasing levels of interfacial complexity, it is demonstrated that the observed atomic-level roughening at the interface must be accounted for to accurately describe the optical response of Si/SiGe heterostructures.Comment: 17 A4 pages of main manuscript, 2 table, 5 figures, 20 A4 pages of supplementary informatio

Mid-infrared emission and absorption in strained and relaxed direct bandgap GeSn semiconductors

By independently engineering strain and composition, this work demonstrates and investigates direct band gap emission in the mid-infrared range from GeSn layers grown on silicon. We extend the room-temperature emission wavelength above ~4.0 {\mu}m upon post-growth strain relaxation in layers with uniform Sn content of 17 at.%. The fundamental mechanisms governing the optical emission are discussed based on temperature-dependent photoluminescence, absorption measurements, and theoretical simulations. Regardless of strain and composition, these analyses confirm that single-peak emission is always observed in the probed temperature range of 4-300 K, ruling out defect- and impurity-related emission. Moreover, carrier losses into thermally-activated non-radiative recombination channels are found to be greatly minimized as a result of strain relaxation. Absorption measurements validate the direct band gap absorption in strained and relaxed samples at energies closely matching photoluminescence data. These results highlight the strong potential of GeSn semiconductors as versatile building blocks for scalable, compact, and silicon-compatible mid-infrared photonics and quantum opto-electronics

Decoupling the effects of composition and strain on the vibrational modes of GeSn

We report on the behavior of Ge-Ge, Ge-Sn, Sn-Sn like and disorder-activated vibrational modes in GeSn semiconductors investigated using Raman scattering spectroscopy. By using an excitation wavelength close to E1 gap, all modes are clearly resolved and their evolution as a function of strain and Sn content is established. In order to decouple the individual contribution of content and strain, the analysis was conducted on series of pseudomorphic and relaxed epitaxial layers with a Sn content in the 5-17at.% range. All vibrational modes were found to display the same qualitative behavior as a function of content and strain, viz. a linear downshift as the Sn content increases or the compressive strain relaxes. Simultaneously, Ge-Sn and Ge-Ge peaks broaden, and the latter becomes increasingly asymmetric. This asymmetry, coupled with the peak position, is exploited in an empirical method to accurately quantify the Sn composition and lattice strain from Raman spectra

Mid-infrared top-gated Ge/Ge0.82_{0.82}Sn0.18_{0.18} nanowire phototransistors

Achieving high crystalline quality Ge$_{1-x}$Sn$_{x}$ semiconductors at Sn content exceeding 10\% is quintessential to implementing the long sought-after silicon-compatible mid-infrared photonics. Herein, by using sub-20 nm Ge nanowires as compliant growth substrates, Ge$_{1-x}$Sn$_{x}$ alloys with a Sn content of 18\% exhibiting a high composition uniformity and crystallinity along a few micrometers in the nanowire growth direction were demonstrated. The measured bandgap energy of the obtained Ge/Ge$_{0.82}$Sn$_{0.18}$ core/shell nanowires is 0.322 eV enabling the mid-infrared photodetection with a cutoff wavelength of 3.9 $\mu$m. These narrow bandgap nanowires were also integrated into top-gated field-effect transistors and phototransistors. Depending on the gate design, these demonstrated transistors were found to exhibit either ambipolar or unipolar behavior with a subthreshold swing as low as 228 mV/decade measured at 85 K. Moreover, varying the top gate voltage from -1 V to 5 V yields nearly one order of magnitude increase in the photocurrent generated by the nanowire phototransistor under a 2330 nm illumination. This study shows that the core/shell nanowire architecture with a super thin core not only mitigates the challenges associated with strain buildup observed in thin films but also provides a promising platform for all-group IV mid-infrared photonics and nanoelectronics paving the way toward sensing and imaging applications

500-period epitaxial Ge/Si0.18Ge0.82 multi-quantum wells on silicon

Ge/SiGe multi-quantum well heterostructures are highly sought-after for silicon-integrated optoelectronic devices operating in the broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum covering infrared to terahertz wavelengths. However, the epitaxial growth of these heterostructures at a thickness of a few microns has been a challenging task due the lattice mismatch and its associated instabilities resulting from the formation of growth defects. To elucidates these limits, we outline herein a process for the strain-balanced growth on silicon of 11.1 nm/21.5 nm Ge/Si0.18Ge0.82 superlattices (SLs) with a total thickness of 16 {\mu}m corresponding to 500 periods. Composition, thickness, and interface width are preserved across the entire SL heterostructure, which is an indication of limited Si-Ge intermixing. High crystallinity and low defect density are obtained in the Ge/Si0.18Ge0.82 layers, however, the dislocation pile up at the interface with the growth substate induces micrometer-longs cracks on the surface. This eventually leads to significant layer tilt in the strain-balanced SL and in the formation of millimeter-long, free-standing flakes. These results confirm the local uniformity of structural properties and highlight the critical importance of threading dislocations in shaping the wafer-level stability of thick multi-quantum well heterostructures required to implement effective silicon-compatible Ge/SiGe photonic devices

Excitonic Aharonov-Bohm Effect in Isotopically Pure 70Ge/Si Type-II Quantum Dots

We report on a magneto-photoluminescence study of isotopically pure 70Ge/Si self-assembled type-II quantum dots. Oscillatory behaviors attributed to the Aharonov-Bohm effect are simultaneously observed for the emission energy and intensity of excitons subject to an increasing magnetic field. When the magnetic flux penetrates through the ring-like trajectory of an electron moving around each quantum dot, the ground state of an exciton experiences a change in its angular momentum. Our results provide the experimental evidence for the phase coherence of a localized electron wave function in group-IV Ge/Si self-assembled quantum structures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Coherent X-ray diffraction imaging and characterization of strain in silicon-on-insulator nanostructures

Coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (CDI) has emerged in the last decade as a promising high resolution lens-less imaging approach for the characterization of various samples. It has made significant technical progress through developments in source, algorithm and imaging methodologies thus enabling important scientific breakthroughs in a broad range of disciplines. In this report, we will introduce the principles of forward scattering CDI and Bragg geometry CDI (BCDI), with an emphasis on the latter. BCDI exploits the ultra-high sensitivity of the diffraction pattern to the distortions of crystalline lattice. Its ability of imaging strain on the nanometer scale in three dimensions is highly novel. We will present the latest progress on the application of BCDI in investigating the strain relaxation behavior in nanoscale patterned strained silicon-on-insulator (sSOI) materials, aiming to understand and engineer strain for the design and implementation of new generation semiconductor devices