Density-driven scattering and valley splitting in undoped Si/SiGe two-dimensional electron system

TL;DR

This study investigates how scattering mechanisms affect valley splitting in undoped Si/SiGe 2DEGs, revealing the influence of impurities, magnetic confinement, and temperature, which are crucial for quantum computing applications.

Contribution

It provides detailed insights into the scattering processes and valley splitting behavior in high-mobility undoped Si/SiGe 2DEGs, informing quantum device design.

Findings

Transport limited by remote impurity scattering at low densities

Background impurity scattering dominates at high densities

Magnetic confinement enhances valley splitting

Abstract

Undoped Si-SiGe two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) provide an ideal platform for hosting quantum-dot spin-qubits owing enhanced spin dephasing times and compatibility with standard CMOS technology. The strained Si quantum well reduces the valley degeneracy into two closely spaced ones. The existence of a near-degenerate valley state act as a leakage channel and compromises gate fidelity. A robust and uniform valley splitting across the entire chip is crucial for achieving scalability in the architecture and reliability in operation. Imperfections such as broadened interfaces, alloy disorders and atomic steps significantly compromise the valley splitting. The associated scattering mechanisms play detrimental roles in the performance of the qubits. In this manuscript, exploiting low-temperature magnetotransport measurements, we investigate the scattering mechanisms and valley splitting in a high-mobility undoped Si-SiGe 2DEG. At lower carrier densities, transport is limited by remote impurity scattering, whereas at higher densities, background impurity scattering near the quantum well dominates. Both the transport and quantum lifetimes of the charge carriers increase with carrier concentration, due to the enhancement in the impurity screening. Magnetic-field-induced confinement effect also is found to improve the valley splitting. Current-biasing measurements reveals the role of carrier heating in the visibility of valley splitting and reveal a temperature limited valley splitting of approximately 100 micro-eV. These results provide critical insight into scattering-dominated regimes and valley splitting in undoped Si-SiGe, advancing its potential for silicon-based quantum devices.