Terahertz conductivity of Si and of Ge/Si(001) heterostructures with quantum dots

TL;DR

This paper investigates the terahertz conductivity of silicon and Ge/Si heterostructures with quantum dots, revealing significant conductivity enhancement and demonstrating the use of BWO spectroscopy for precise dielectric measurements at THz frequencies.

Contribution

It introduces a method to measure terahertz conductivity of nanostructured heterostructures and discusses the microscopic mechanisms behind conductivity enhancement.

Findings

Conductivity of Ge/Si heterostructures is significantly higher than bulk Ge.

BWO spectroscopy enables precise dielectric property measurements at THz frequencies.

Temperature dependence of dielectric properties is characterized from 5K to 300K.

Abstract

With an MBE technique, a Si/Ge heterostructures are prepared containing layers of nanostructured Ge with quantum dots of size of several nanometers. The effective conductivity of the layers is determined by a quasioptical terahertz-subterahertz coherent source BWO spectroscopy. The conductivity is found to be strongly enhanced compared with the conductivity of bulk germanium. Possible microscopic mechanisms responsible for the enhancement will be discussed. Application of BWO spectrometers for obtaining precise quantitative information on of dielectric properties at THz-subTHz frequencies of semiconducting layers and structures is demonstrated by presenting the temperature dependences of dielectric characteristics of a commercial silicon wafer at frequencies 0.3 to 1.2 THz and temperatures 5K-300K.