Magnetotransport in non-planar SiGe/Si nanomembranes

TL;DR

This paper studies how the geometry of nonplanar SiGe/Si nanomembranes affects their magnetotransport properties, revealing high sensitivity of ballistic magnetoconductance to curvature changes under magnetic fields.

Contribution

It introduces a modified transfer matrix technique to account for local curvature in nonplanar quantum cavities, advancing understanding of geometry-electronics interplay.

Findings

Magnetoconductance is highly sensitive to curvature variations.

Curvature significantly influences ballistic transport at low temperatures.

The modified transfer matrix method effectively models nonplanar geometries.

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between electronics and geometry in a nonplanar SiGe/Si resonant quantum cavity (RQC) subject to a magnetic field. The transfer matrix technique originally due to Usuki and coworkers (Phys. Rev. B 52, 8244 1995) has been modified to account for the nonzero local curvature of the RQC. Our results demonstrate that low-temperature ballistic magnetoconductance in nonplanar RQCs is highly sensitive to the changes in curvature for a wide range of magnetic field strengths.