Stark effect of shallow impurities in Si

TL;DR

This paper provides a theoretical analysis of how electric fields influence the energy levels of shallow impurities in silicon, with implications for atomic-scale electronics and quantum computing.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed theoretical model that accounts for silicon bandstructure to accurately compute impurity energy levels under strong electric fields.

Findings

Electric fields significantly shift impurity energy levels in silicon.

Hydrogen-like impurity models effectively predict energy level changes.

Results inform design of atomic-scale electronic devices and quantum computers.

Abstract

We have theoretically studied the effect of an electric field on the energy levels of shallow donors and acceptors in silicon. An analysis of the electric field dependence of the lowest energy states in donors and acceptors is presented, taking the bandstructure into account. A description as hydrogen-like impurities was used for accurate computation of energy levels and lifetimes up to large (several MV/m) electric fields. All results are discussed in connection with atomic scale electronics and solid state quantum computation.