Position-controlled functionalization of vacancies in silicon by single-ion implanted germanium atoms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to create and control silicon vacancies functionalized with germanium atoms via single-ion implantation, revealing unique quantum transport properties relevant for quantum information technology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to spatially control vacancy-related defects in silicon using single-ion implantation of germanium atoms, combined with a theoretical model to analyze their quantum transport behavior.

Findings

Identification of anomalous activation energies in conductance

Observation of sub-threshold transport due to many-body states

Potential for engineering controllable quantum defects in silicon

Abstract

Special point defects in semiconductors have been envisioned as suitable components for quantum-information technology. The identification of new deep centers in silicon that can be easily activated and controlled is a main target of the research in the field. Vacancy-related complexes are suitable to provide deep electronic levels but they are hard to control spatially. With the spirit of investigating solid state devices with intentional vacancy-related defects at controlled position, here we report on the functionalization of silicon vacancies by implanting Ge atoms through single-ion implantation, producing Ge-vacancy (GeV) complexes. We investigate the quantum transport through an array of GeV complexes in a silicon-based transistor. By exploiting a model based on an extended Hubbard Hamiltonian derived from ab-initio results we find anomalous activation energy values of the thermally activated conductance of both quasi-localized and delocalized many-body states, compared to conventional dopants. We identify such states, forming the upper Hubbard band, as responsible of the experimental sub-threshold transport across the transistor. The combination of our model with the single-ion implantation method enables future research for the engineering of GeV complexes towards the creation of spatially controllable individual defects in silicon for applications in quantum information technologies.