Superconductivity in Substitutional Ga-Hyperdoped Ge Epitaxial Thin Films

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that epitaxially grown hyperdoped Ga:Ge films exhibit superconductivity at 3.5 K, with substitutional Ga dopants inducing a narrow band conducive to superconductivity, advancing superconductor-semiconductor integration.

Contribution

First demonstration of epitaxial hyperdoped Ga:Ge films with superconductivity, revealing the role of substitutional dopants and structural order in inducing superconductivity in Ge.

Findings

Superconductivity observed at 3.5 K in Ga:Ge films.

Ga dopants are substitutionally incorporated, causing tetragonal distortion.

Structural order of dopants is crucial for superconductivity.

Abstract

Doping-induced superconductivity in group IV elements may enable quantum functionalities in material systems accessible with well-established semiconductor technologies. Non-equilibrium hyperdoping of group III atoms into C, Si, or Ge can yield superconductivity; however, its origin is obscured by structural disorder and dopant clustering. Here, we report the epitaxial growth of hyperdoped Ga:Ge films and trilayer heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy with extreme hole concentrations ($n_\textup{h} = 4.15 \times 10^{21}$~cm$^{-3}$, ~17.9\% Ga substitution) that yield superconductivity with a critical temperature of $T_{\textup{c}} = 3.5$~K and an out-of-plane critical field of 1~T at 270~mK. Synchrotron-based X-ray absorption and scattering methods reveal that Ga dopants are substitutionally incorporated within the Ge lattice, introducing a tetragonal distortion to the crystal unit cell. Our findings, corroborated by first-principles calculations, suggest that the structural order of Ga dopants creates a narrow band for the emergence of superconductivity in Ge, establishing hyperdoped Ga:Ge as a low-disorder, epitaxial superconductor-semiconductor platform.