Search

A multistep phase sequence following the crystallization of amorphous Al2O3 via solid-phase epitaxy (SPE) points to methods to create low-defect-density thin films of the metastable cubic γ-Al2O3 polymorph. An amorphous Al2O3 thin film on a (0001) α-Al2O3 sapphire substrate initially transforms upon heating to form epitaxial γ-Al2O3, followed by a transformation to monoclinic θ-Al2O3, and eventually to α-Al2O3. Epitaxial γ-Al2O3 layers with low mosaic widths in X-ray rocking curves can be formed via SPE by crystallizing the γ-Al2O3 phase from amorphous Al2O3 and avoiding the microstructural inhomogeneity arising from the spatially inhomogeneous transformation to θ-Al2O3. A complementary molecular dynamics (MD) simulation indicates that the amorphous layer and γ-Al2O3 have similar Al coordination geometry, suggesting that γ-Al2O3 forms in part because it involves the minimum rearrangement of the initially amorphous configuration. The lattice parameters of γ-Al2O3 are consistent with a structure in which the majority of the Al vacancies in the spinel structure occupy sites with tetrahedral coordination, consistent with the MD results. The formation of Al vacancies at tetrahedral spinel sites in epitaxial γ-Al2O3 can minimize the epitaxial elastic deformation of γ-Al2O3 during crystallization.

Reconfiguration of amorphous complex oxides provides a readily controllable source of stress that can be leveraged in nanoscale assembly to access a broad range of 3D geometries and hybrid materials. An amorphous SrTiO3 layer on a Si:B/Si1-x Gex :B heterostructure is reconfigured at the atomic scale upon heating, exhibiting a change in volume of ≈2% and accompanying biaxial stress. The Si:B/Si1-x Gex :B bilayer is fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy, followed by sputter deposition of SrTiO3 at room temperature. The processes yield a hybrid oxide/semiconductor nanomembrane. Upon release from the substrate, the nanomembrane rolls up and has a curvature determined by the stress in the epitaxially grown Si:B/Si1-x Gex :B heterostructure. Heating to 600 °C leads to a decrease of the radius of curvature consistent with the development of a large compressive biaxial stress during the reconfiguration of SrTiO3 . The control of stresses via post-deposition processing provides a new route to the assembly of complex-oxide-based heterostructures in 3D geometry. The reconfiguration of metastable mechanical stressors enables i) synthesis of various types of strained superlattice structures that cannot be fabricated by direct growth and ii) technologies based on strain engineering of complex oxides via highly scalable lithographic processes and on large-area semiconductor substrates.

Crystallization from an amorphous precursor presents a new route to control the properties of complex oxides by selecting their nanoscale morphology. A key challenge in crystal growth from the amor...

Silicon-germanium heterostructures have successfully hosted quantum dot qubits, but the intrinsic near-degeneracy of the two lowest valley states poses an obstacle to high fidelity quantum computing. We present a modification to the Si/SiGe heterostructure by the inclusion of a spike in germanium concentration within the quantum well in order to increase the valley splitting. The heterostructure is grown by chemical vapor deposition and magnetospectroscopy is performed on gate-defined quantum dots to measure the excited state spectrum. We demonstrate a large and widely tunable valley splitting as a function of applied vertical electric field and lateral dot confinement. We further investigate the role of the germanium spike by means of tight-binding simulations in single-electron dots and show a robust doubling of the valley splitting when the spike is present, as compared to a standard (spike-free) heterostructure. This doubling effect is nearly independent of the electric field, germanium content of the spike, and spike location. This experimental evidence of a stable, tunable quantum dot, despite a drastic change to the heterostructure, provides a foundation for future heterostructure modifications., 11 pages, 7 figures

SrVO3 thin films with a high figure of merit for applications as transparent conductors were crystallized from amorphous layers using solid phase epitaxy (SPE). Epitaxial SrVO3 films crystallized on SrTiO3 using SPE exhibit a room temperature resistivity of 2.5 x 10-5 Ohms cm, a residual resistivity ratio of 3.8, and visible light transmission above 0.5 for a 60 nm-thick film. SrVO3 layers were deposited at room temperature using radio-frequency sputtering in an amorphous form and subsequently crystallized by heating in controlled gas environment. The lattice parameters and mosaic angular width of x-ray reflections from the crystallized films are consistent with partial relaxation of the strain resulting from the epitaxial mismatch between SrVO3 and SrTiO3. A reflection high-energy electron diffraction study of the kinetics of SPE indicates that crystallization occurs via the thermally activated propagation of the crystalline/amorphous interface, similar to SPE phenomena in other perovskite oxides. Thermodynamic calculations based on density functional theory predict the temperature and oxygen partial pressure conditions required to produce the SrVO3 phase and are consistent with the experiments. The separate control of deposition and crystallization conditions in SPE presents new possibilities for the crystallization of transparent conductors in complex geometries and over large areas., Comment: Keywords: epitaxial transparent conducting oxides, solid-phase epitaxy, strontium vanadate, phase selection in oxide synthesis

A multistep phase sequence following the crystallization of amorphous Al

We study spatial noise correlations in a Si/SiGe two-qubit device with integrated micromagnets. Our method relies on the concept of decoherence-free subspaces, whereby we measure the coherence time for two different Bell states, designed to be sensitive only to either correlated or anti-correlated noise respectively. From these measurements, we find weak correlations in low-frequency noise acting on the two qubits, while no correlations could be detected in high-frequency noise. A theoretical model and numerical simulations give further insight into the additive effect of multiple independent (anti-)correlated noise sources with an asymmetric effect on the two qubits. Such a scenario is plausible given the data and our understanding of the physics of this system. This work is highly relevant for the design of optimized quantum error correction codes for spin qubits in quantum dot arrays, as well as for optimizing the design of future quantum dot arrays., Comment: 6+6 pages, 4+3 figures

Identifying and ameliorating dominant sources of decoherence are important steps in understanding and improving quantum systems. Here we show that the free induction decay time ($T_{2}^{*}$) and the Rabi decay rate ($\Gamma_{\mathrm{Rabi}}$) of the quantum dot hybrid qubit can be increased by more than an order of magnitude by appropriate tuning of the qubit parameters and operating points. By operating in the spin-like regime of this qubit, and choosing parameters that increase the qubit's resilience to charge noise (which we show is presently the limiting noise source for this qubit), we achieve a Ramsey decay time $T_{2}^{*}$ of $177~\mathrm{ns}$ and a Rabi decay time, $1/\Gamma_{\mathrm{Rabi}}$, exceeding $1~\mathrm{\mu s}$. We find that the slowest $\Gamma_{\mathrm{Rabi}}$ is limited by fluctuations in the Rabi frequency induced by charge noise and not by fluctuations in the qubit energy itself., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary material is included as appendices

Quantum error correction is of crucial importance for fault-tolerant quantum computers. As an essential step toward the implementation of quantum error-correcting codes, quantum nondemolition measurements are needed to efficiently detect the state of a logical qubit without destroying it. Here we implement quantum nondemolition measurements in a Si/SiGe two-qubit system, with one qubit serving as the logical qubit and the other serving as the ancilla. Making use of a two-qubit controlled-rotation gate, the state of the logical qubit is mapped onto the ancilla, followed by a destructive readout of the ancilla. Repeating this procedure enhances the logical readout fidelity from 75.5±0.3% to 94.5±0.2% after 15 ancilla readouts. In addition, we compare the conventional thresholding method with an improved signal processing method called soft decoding that makes use of analog information in the readout signal to better estimate the state of the logical qubit. We demonstrate that soft decoding leads to a significant reduction in the required number of repetitions when the readout errors become limited by Gaussian noise, for instance, in the case of readouts with a low signal-to-noise ratio. These results pave the way for the implementation of quantum error correction with spin qubits in silicon. published

Chemical vapor deposition of CH4 on Ge(001) can enable anisotropic growth of narrow, semiconducting graphene nanoribbons with predominately smooth armchair edges and high-performance charge transport properties. However, such nanoribbons are not aligned in one direction but instead grow perpendicularly, which is not optimal for integration into high-performance electronics. Here, it is demonstrated that vicinal Ge(001) substrates can be used to synthesize armchair nanoribbons, of which ∼90% are aligned within ±1.5° perpendicular to the miscut. When the growth rate is slow, graphene crystals evolve as nanoribbons. However, as the growth rate increases, the uphill and downhill crystal edges evolve asymmetrically. This asymmetry is consistent with stronger binding between the downhill edge and the Ge surface, for example due to different edge termination as shown by density functional theory calculations. By tailoring growth rate and time, nanoribbons with sub-10 nm widths that exhibit excellent charge transport characteristics, including simultaneous high on-state conductance of 8.0 μS and a high on/off conductance ratio of 570 in field-effect transistors, are achieved. Large-area alignment of semiconducting ribbons with promising charge transport properties is an important step towards understanding the anisotropic nanoribbon growth and integrating these materials into scalable, future semiconductor technologies.

Thermal management efforts in nanoscale devices must consider both the thermal properties of the constituent materials and the interfaces connecting them. It is currently unclear whether alloy/alloy semiconductor superlattices such as InAlAs/InGaAs have lower thermal conductivities than their constituent alloys. We report measurements of the crossplane thermal resistivity of InAlAs/InGaAs superlattices at room temperature, showing that the superlattice resistivities are larger by a factor of 1.2-1.6 than that of the constituent bulk materials, depending on the strain state and composition. We show that the additional resistance present in these superlattices can be tuned by a factor of 2.5 by altering the lattice mismatch and thereby the phonon-mode mismatch at the interfaces, a principle that is commonly assumed for superlattices but has not been experimentally verified without adding new elements to the layers. We find that the additional resistance in superlattices does not increase significantly when the layer thickness is decreased from 4 to 2 nm. We also report measurements of 250-1000 nm thick films of undoped InGaAs and InAlAs lattice-matched to InP substrates, for there is no published thermal conductivity value for the latter, and we find it to be 2.24 ± 0.09 at 22 °C, which is ∼2.7 times smaller than the widely used estimates.

The current practice of manually tuning quantum dots (QDs) for qubit operation is a relatively time-consuming procedure that is inherently impractical for scaling up and applications. In this work, we report on the {\it in situ} implementation of a recently proposed autotuning protocol that combines machine learning (ML) with an optimization routine to navigate the parameter space. In particular, we show that a ML algorithm trained using exclusively simulated data to quantitatively classify the state of a double-QD device can be used to replace human heuristics in the tuning of gate voltages in real devices. We demonstrate active feedback of a functional double-dot device operated at millikelvin temperatures and discuss success rates as a function of the initial conditions and the device performance. Modifications to the training network, fitness function, and optimizer are discussed as a path toward further improvement in the success rate when starting both near and far detuned from the target double-dot range., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures

We report the first complete characterization of single-qubit and two-qubit gate fidelities in silicon-based spin qubits, including cross-talk and error correlations between the two qubits. To do so, we use a combination of standard randomized benchmarking and a recently introduced method called character randomized benchmarking, which allows for more reliable estimates of the two-qubit fidelity in this system. Interestingly, with character randomized benchmarking, the two-qubit CPhase gate fidelity can be obtained by studying the additional decay induced by interleaving the CPhase gate in a reference sequence of single-qubit gates only. This work sets the stage for further improvements in all the relevant gate fidelities in silicon spin qubits beyond the error threshold for fault-tolerant quantum computation., Comment: 6+5 pages, 6 figures

SiGe quantum wells are promising candidates for the development of intersubband light emitters and photodetectors operating at mid- and far-infrared wavelengths. By virtue of their inherent compatibility with the Si microelectronics platform, these devices may be integrated seamlessly within complex optoelectronic systems for sensing and imaging applications. However, the development of high-quality SiGe intersubband active layers is complicated by the large lattice mismatch between Si and Ge, which limits the number of quantum wells that can be grown on bulk Si substrates before the onset of structural degradation due to inelastic strain relaxation. To address this issue, we investigate the use of lattice matched growth templates consisting of quantum-well nanomembrane stacks that were at one point free-standing, allowing for the internal stress to be relaxed via elastic strain sharing rather than defect formation. SiGe quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) based on this approach are developed and...

Nanostructures offer the opportunity to control the vibrational properties of via the scattering of phonons due to boundaries and mass disorder as well as through changes in the phonon dispersion due to spatial confinement. Advances in understanding these effects have the potential to lead to thermoelectrics with an improved figure of merit by lowering the thermal conductivity and to provide insight into electron-phonon scattering rates in nanoelectronics. Characterizing the phonon population in nanomaterials has been challenging because of their small volume and because optical techniques probe only a small fraction of reciprocal space. Recent developments in x-ray scattering now allow the phonon population to be evaluated across all of reciprocal space in samples with volumes as small as several cubic micrometers. We apply this approach, synchrotron x-ray thermal diffuse scattering (TDS), to probe the population of phonons within a Si/SiGe/Si trilayer nanomembrane. The distributions of scattered intensity from Si/SiGe/Si trilayer nanomembranes and Si nanomembranes with uniform composition are qualitatively similar, with features arising from the elastic anisotropy of the diamond structure. The TDS signal for the Si/SiGe/Si nanomembrane, however, has higher intensity than the Si membrane of the same total thickness by approximately 3.75%. Possible origins of the enhancement in scattering from SiGe in comparison with Si include the larger atomic scattering factor of Ge atoms within the SiGe layer or reduced phonon frequencies due to alloying.

A two-qubit quantum processor in a silicon device is demonstrated, which can perform the Deutsch–Josza algorithm and the Grover search algorithm. The development of platforms for spin-based quantum computing continues apace. The individual components of such a system have been the subject of much investigation, and they have been assembled to implement specific quantum-computational algorithms. Thomas Watson and colleagues have now taken such component integration and control to the next level. Using two single-electron-spin qubits in a silicon-based double quantum dot, they realize a system that can be simply programmed to perform different quantum algorithms on demand. Now that it is possible to achieve measurement and control fidelities for individual quantum bits (qubits) above the threshold for fault tolerance, attention is moving towards the difficult task of scaling up the number of physical qubits to the large numbers that are needed for fault-tolerant quantum computing1,2. In this context, quantum-dot-based spin qubits could have substantial advantages over other types of qubit owing to their potential for all-electrical operation and ability to be integrated at high density onto an industrial platform3,4,5. Initialization, readout and single- and two-qubit gates have been demonstrated in various quantum-dot-based qubit representations6,7,8,9. However, as seen with small-scale demonstrations of quantum computers using other types of qubit10,11,12,13, combining these elements leads to challenges related to qubit crosstalk, state leakage, calibration and control hardware. Here we overcome these challenges by using carefully designed control techniques to demonstrate a programmable two-qubit quantum processor in a silicon device that can perform the Deutsch–Josza algorithm and the Grover search algorithm—canonical examples of quantum algorithms that outperform their classical analogues. We characterize the entanglement in our processor by using quantum-state tomography of Bell states, measuring state fidelities of 85–89 per cent and concurrences of 73–82 per cent. These results pave the way for larger-scale quantum computers that use spins confined to quantum dots.

Motivated by theoretical predictions that spatially complex concentration modulations of Si and Ge can increase the valley splitting in quantum wells, we grow and characterize Si/SiGe heterostructures with a thin, pure Ge layer at the top of the quantum well using chemical vapor deposition. We show that these heterostructures remain hosts for high-mobility electron gases. We measure two quantum wells with approximately five monolayers of pure Ge at the upper barrier, finding mobilities as high as 70,000 cm$^2$/Vs, compared to 100,000 cm$^2$/Vs measured in samples with no Ge layer. Activation energy measurements in quantum Hall states corresponding to Fermi levels in the gap between different valley states reveal energy gaps ranging from 30 to over 200 $\mu$eV, and we extract a surprisingly strong dependence of the energy gap on electron density. We interpret our results using tight binding theory and argue that our results are evidence that atomic scale disorder at the quantum well interface dominates the behavior of the valley splittings of these modified heterostructures., Comment: 7 pages

We report anomalous behavior in the energy dispersion of a three-electron double-quantum-dot hybrid qubit and argue that it is caused by atomic-scale disorder at the quantum-well interface. By employing tight-binding simulations, we identify potential disorder profiles that induce behavior consistent with the experiments. The results indicate that disorder can give rise to "sweet spots" where the decoherence caused by charge noise is suppressed, even in a parameter regime where true sweet spots are unexpected. Conversely, "hot spots" where the decoherence is enhanced can also occur. Our results suggest that, under appropriate conditions, interfacial atomic structure can be used as a tool to enhance the fidelity of Si double-dot qubits., Comment: 7 pages

Thin-film deposition on ultra-thin substrates poses unique challenges because of the potential for a dynamic response to the film stress during deposition. While theoretical studies have investigated film stress related changes in bulk substrates, little has been done to learn how stress might evolve in a film growing on a compliant substrate. We use silicon nanomembranes (SiNMs), extremely thin sheets of single-crystalline Si, as a substrate for the growth of amorphous SiN x to begin to address this question. Nanomembranes are released from a silicon-on-insulator wafer with selective etching, transferred over a hole etched into a Si wafer, and bonded to the edges of the hole. The nanomembrane window provides the substrate for SiN x deposition and a platform, using Raman spectroscopy, for measurements of the evolving strain in the nanomembrane. From the strain in the nanomembrane, the film stress can be inferred from the required balance of forces in the film/substrate system. We observe that the strain in the tethered NM increases as the NM is made thinner while the intrinsic steady-state stress in the deposited film is reduced.

Methods to integrate different crystal orientations, strain states, and compositions of semiconductors in planar and preferably flexible configurations may enable nontraditional sensing-, stimulating-, or communication-device applications. We combine crystalline-silicon nanomembranes, patterning, membrane transfer, and epitaxial growth to demonstrate planar arrays of different orientations and strain states of Si in a single membrane, which is then readily transferable to other substrates, including flexible supports. As examples, regions of Si(001) and Si(110) or strained Si(110) are combined to form a multicomponent, single substrate with high-quality narrow interfaces. We perform extensive structural characterization of all interfaces and measure charge-carrier mobilities in different regions of a 2D quilt. The method is readily extendable to include varying compositions or different classes of materials.

We study the dynamics of a pulse-gated semiconductor double-quantum-dot qubit. In our experiments, the qubit coherence times are relatively long, but the visibility of the quantum oscillations is low. We show that these observations are consistent with a theory that incorporates decoherence arising from charge noise that gives rise to detuning fluctuations of the double dot. Because effects from charge noise are largest near the singlet-triplet avoided level crossing, the visibility of the oscillations is low when the singlet-triplet avoided level crossing occurs in the vicinity of the charge degeneracy point crossed during the manipulation, but there is only modest dephasing at the large detuning value at which the quantum phase accumulates. This theory agrees well with experimental data and predicts that the visibility can be increased greatly by appropriate tuning of the interdot tunneling rate.

SiGe quantum-well nanomembranes, where stress from lattice mismatch is relaxed via elastic strain sharing rather than defect formation, are used to develop intersubband photodetectors showing improved performance compared to identical devices grown on rigid substrates.

As semiconductor based quantum devices scale up from single to multiple qubits there is an increasing need to integrate classical semiconductor based devices to manage and generate control signals. We discuss progress on integrating field-effect transistors with planar quantum dot devices to achieve a high level of device throughput by creating on-chip multiplexers for our devices. Using the on-chip multiplexers we can overcome the challenge of the limited number of electrical connections available in a typical dilution refrigerator while still working at the milli-Kelvin temperatures necessary for quantum operations. Additionally, we report on recent work on gate designs for scaling up to multiple, coupled Si/SiGe qubits. In particular we discuss the design, fabrication and initial characterization of quadruple quantum dot devices. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Army Research Office (W911NF-08-1-0482, W911NF-12-1-0607), the United States Department of Defense, and by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressly or implied, of the US Government. Development and maintenance of the growth facilities used for fabricating samples is supported by DOE (DE-FG02-503ER46028).

Poly(dimethylsiloxane), PDMS, a versatile elastomer, is the polymer of choice for microfluidic systems. It is inexpensive, relatively easy to pattern, and permeable to oxygen. Unmodified PDMS is highly hydrophobic. It is typically exposed to an oxygen plasma to reduce this hydrophobicity. Unfortunately, the PDMS surface soon returns to its original hydrophobic state. We present two alternative plasma treatments that yield long-term modification of the wetting properties of a PDMS surface. An oxygen plasma pretreatment followed by exposure to a SiCl4 plasma and an oxygen-CCl4 mixture plasma both cause a permanent reduction in the hydrophobicity of the PDMS surface. We investigate the properties of the plasma-treated surfaces with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurements. We propose that the plasma treated PDMS surface is a dynamic mosaic of high- and low-contact-angle functionalities. The SiCl4 and CCl4 plasmas attach polar groups that block coverage of the surface by low-molecular-weight groups that exist in PDMS. We describe an application that benefits from these new plasma treatments, the use of a PDMS stencil to form dense arrays of DNA on a surface.

The valley degree of freedom is intrinsic to spin qubits in Si/SiGe quantum dots. It has been viewed alternately as a hazard, especially when the lowest valley-orbit splitting is small compared to the thermal energy, or as an asset, most prominently in proposals to use the valley degree of freedom itself as a qubit. Here we present experiments in which microwave electric field driving induces transitions between both valley-orbit and spin states. We show that this system is highly nonlinear and can be understood through the use of dressed photon-orbital states, enabling a unified understanding of the six microwave resonance lines we observe. Some of these resonances are inter-valley spin transitions that arise from a non-adiabatic process in which both the valley and the spin degree of freedom are excited simultaneously. For these transitions, involving a change in valley-orbit state, we find a tenfold increase in sensitivity to electric fields and electrical noise compared to pure spin transitions, strongly reducing the phase coherence when changes in valley-orbit index are incurred. In contrast to this non-adiabatic transition, the pure spin transitions, whether arising from harmonic or subharmonic generation, are shown to be adiabatic in the orbital sector. The non-linearity of the system is most strikingly manifest in the observation of a dynamical anti-crossing between a spin-flip, inter-valley transition and a three-photon transition enabled by the strong nonlinearity we find in this seemly simple system., 23 pages, 11 figures, supplementary material included

Universal quantum computation requires high fidelity single qubit rotations and controlled two qubit gates. Along with high fidelity single qubit gates, strong efforts have been made in developing robust two qubit logic gates in electrically-gated quantum dot systems to realize a compact and nano-fabrication-compatible architecture. Here, we perform measurements of state-conditional coherent oscillations of a charge qubit. Using a quadruple quantum dot formed in a Si/SiGe heterostructure, we show the first demonstration of coherent two-axis control of a double quantum dot charge qubit in undoped Si/SiGe, performing Larmor and Ramsey oscillation measurements. We extract the strength of the capacitive coupling between double quantum dots by measuring the detuning energy shift ($\approx$ 75 $\mu$eV) of one double dot depending on the excess charge configuration of the other double dot. We further demonstrate that the strong capacitive coupling allows fast conditional Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg interferences with conditonal $\pi$ phase flip time about 80 ps, showing promising pathways toward multi-qubit entanglement control in semiconductor quantum dots., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures including supplementary information

Si quantum wells on plastically relaxed SiGe substrates have nanometer variations in crystallographic parameters crucial to quantum-information devices. Synchrotron X-ray nanodiffraction shows that the lattice of the Si quantum well varies in orientation and thickness over lateral distances of 100 nm to 1 μm. The result is that the energy levels of the confined states are shifted by energies similar to the electron temperature.

Strain in a material changes the lattice constant and thereby creates a material with new properties relative to the unstrained, but chemically identical, material. The ability to alter the strain (its magnitude, direction, extent, periodicity, symmetry, and nature) allows tunability of these new properties. A recent development, crystalline nanomembranes, offers a powerful platform for using and tuning strain to create materials that have unique properties, not achievable in bulk materials or with conventional processes. Nanomembranes, because of their thinness, enable elastic strain sharing, a process that introduces large amounts of strain and unique strain distributions in single-crystal materials, without exposing the material to the formation of extended defects. We provide here prescriptions for making new strained materials using crystal symmetry as the driver: we calculate the strain distributions in flat nanomembranes for two-fold and four-fold elastically symmetric materials. We show that we can controllably tune the amount of strain and the asymmetry of the strain distribution in elastically isotropic and anisotropic materials uniformly over large areas. We perform the experimental demonstration with a trilayer Si(110)/Si((1-x))Ge(x)(110)/Si(110) nanomembrane: an elastically two-fold symmetric system in which we can transfer strain that is biaxially isotropic. We are thus able to make uniformly strained materials that cannot be made any other way.

In many neural culture studies, neurite migration on a flat, open surface does not reflect the three-dimensional (3D) microenvironment in vivo. With that in mind, we fabricated arrays of semiconductor tubes using strained silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge) nanomembranes and employed them as a cell culture substrate for primary cortical neurons. Our experiments show that the SiGe substrate and the tube fabrication process are biologically viable for neuron cells. We also observe that neurons are attracted by the tube topography, even in the absence of adhesion factors, and can be guided to pass through the tubes during outgrowth. Coupled with selective seeding of individual neurons close to the tube opening, growth within a tube can be limited to a single axon. Furthermore, the tube feature resembles the natural myelin, both physically and electrically, and it is possible to control the tube diameter to be close to that of an axon, providing a confined 3D contact with the axon membrane and potentially insulating it from the extracellular solution.

We fabricate curled 3-D objects from semiconductor nanomembranes consisting of single-crystal silicon, which is epitaxially grown on silicon-germanium-on-insulator substrates. The curling is caused by relaxing the strain induced by lattice mismatch between silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge). Depending on the lithographically patterned geometries and their orientation with respect to the crystallographic direction, different shapes of tubes can be realized. Particularly interesting are tubes that are not completely closed, or partially open, whose mechanical response is ultraelastic. We demonstrate that applying acetone on such tubes generates a surface stress imbalance between the Si and Si-Ge layers, resulting in detectable shape changes. This mechanism has potential applications in chemical sensing, where the deformable curled structures act as dynamic-aperture reflector antennas. Our simulation suggests the curvature changes induced in the presence of certain chemical, such as acetone, will lead to distinctive far-field radiation patterns in the terahertz (THz) range.

Single-crystal semiconductor nanomembranes provide unique opportunities for basic studies and device applications of strain engineering by virtue of mechanical properties analogous to those of flexible polymeric materials. Here, we investigate the radiative properties of nanomembranes based on InGaAs (one of the standard active materials for infrared diode lasers) under external mechanical stress. Photoluminescence measurements show that, by varying the applied stress, the InGaAs bandgap energy can be red-shifted by over 250 nm, leading to efficient strain-tunable light emission across the same spectral range. These mechanically stressed nanomembranes could therefore form the basis for actively tunable semiconductor lasers featuring ultrawide tunability of the output wavelength.

A new approach to SiGe island ordering on mechanically responsive silicon nanomembranes (SiNMs) is examined using mechanics modeling. Double-sided deposition on freestanding substrates results in ordered islands on both surfaces. This ordering occurs because the extreme thinness of the SiNM allows islands on one surface to create significant strain fields, which guide the nucleation of subsequent islands, on the opposite surface. The locations of nucleation sites predicted by the modeling agree with experimental observations of SiGe islands grown on silicon nanomembranes. The modeling shows that the island location and the strength of ordering can be controlled by manipulating the thickness of the membrane.

The desire for increased processor speed leads to a demand for high-carrier-mobility CMOS devices. The complementary nature of CMOS, with both n-type and p-type channels, means that the lowest-mobility channel will limit the device speed. In the conventional (001) orientation of Si, the hole mobility is dramatically less than the electron mobility (1), (2), and hence serves as a bottleneck in CMOS performance. To compensate for the lower hole mobility, it is customary to fabricate the p-type device regions 3-10x larger than the n-type regions, consuming an undesirably large quantity of device real estate. The current drive imbalance between n-type and p-type channels can be minimized, thus negating the need for disproportionately large p-type regions, by fabricating mixed regions of Si(110) (high hole mobility) and Si(001) (high electron mobility) on a single substrate; so-called hybrid-orientation technology (HOT) (1). We fabricate a mixed-crystal-orientation material in flexible membrane form, using Si nanomembrane (SiNM) transfer and overgrowth, to produce a “quilt” of Si(001) and Si(110).

The observation of spin blockade and lifetime-enhanced transport effects in Si/SiGe double quantum dots represents a promising step in the development of silicon-based quantum devices.

Demonstration of high-performance MOS thin-film transistors (TFTs) on elastically strain-sharing single-crystal Si/SiGe/Si nanomembranes (SiNMs) that are transferred to foreign substrates is reported. The transferable SiNMs are realized by first growing pseudomorphic SiGe and Si layers on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates, and then, selectively removing the buried oxide (BOX) layer from the SOI. Before the release, only the SiGe layer is compressively strained. Upon release, part of the compressive strain in the SiGe layer is transferred to the thin Si layers, and the Si layers, thus, become tensile strained. Both the initial compressive strain state in the SiGe layer and the final strain sharing state between the SiGe and the Si layers are verified with X-ray diffraction measurements. The TFTs are fabricated employing the conventional high-temperature MOS process on the strain-shared SiNMs that are transferred to an oxidized Si substrate. The transferred strained-sharing SiNMs show outstanding thermal stability and can withstand the high-temperature TFT process on the new host substrate. The strained-channel TFTs fabricated on the new host substrate show high current drive capability and an average electron effective mobility of 270 cm2/V ldr s. The results suggest that transferable and thermally stable single-crystal elastically strain- sharing SiNMs can serve as excellent active material for high-speed device application with a simple and scalable transfer method. The demonstration of MOS TFTs on the transferable nanomembranes may create the opportunity for future high-speed Si CMOS heterogeneous integration on any substrate.

A few-electron quantum dot utilizing Schottky, metal top gates in a modulation doped Si/SiGe heterostructure was realized and non-linear transport through the dot was studied. By carefully tuning the capacitively coupled gates, the single quantum dot was transformed into two tunnel-coupled quantum dots in series. The resulting double quantum dot was tuned to the few-electron regime and the charge stability diagram was studied as a function of the gate voltages. Understanding of such a double dot system is essential for the practical implementation of exchange-mediated multi-qubit systems in silicon devices.

Multiple-layer SOI, in which there are multiple device layers per unit area, is of great interest because it potentially enables fully 3D integration. It also offers the prospect of more complete integration between optics and microelectronics than is possible with purely 2D structures. Here we present a technique for transfer and stacking of multiple single crystal Si nanomembranes with intervening oxide layers, enabling fabrication of multiple-layer SOI. We explain how to overcome transfer challenges, the most important of which is unintentional bonding of nanomembranes to their host substrate during lift-off. We examine the surface roughness of the membranes using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Intriguingly, the intermediate spin-on-glass layers used in this work are rougher than the silicon layers above and below, indicating that membrane transfer can ameliorate roughness introduced by such layers. We have used this process to create multilayer Si/SiO2 heterostructures, i.e., multiple-layer SOI. These structures naturally function as Bragg reflectors, and thus their optical reflectivity can be used as a measure of structure quality. The reflectivity of one, two, and three membrane structures has been measured, and reflectivity above 99% has been achieved for three-layer samples.

This paper reports the first demonstration of both n- and p-type thin-film transistors (TFTs) on flexible plastic substrate using single-crystal Si (110) surface-oriented nanomembrane as active layer. The Si (110) nanomembrane of 190-nm thickness is derived from UNIBOND® silicon-on-insulator (SOI) fabricated by hybrid orientation technology (HOT) and transferred to flexible plastic substrate followed by a low-temperature (< 120 ºC) device process. Good device performance has been achieved under so far not-perfected device processing conditions, which includes field-effect mobility of around 95 and 45 cm2/V-sec on the linear region for the n- and p-type Si (110) TFTs, respectively, and device current ON/OFF ratio better than 10000 for both types of TFTs.

Undercut or fully released silicon template layers of ultrathin silicon-on-insulator are structurally compliant and allow long- range mechanical interactions that are impossible on supported SOI, thick SOI, or on bulk surfaces. SiGe quantum dots create and respond to strain in these freestanding Si substrates. We show that elastic effects lead to long-range order in the positions of quantum dots grown on both sides of a free- standing thin SOI substrate. A statistical analysis of the distribution of quantum dots shows that the ordered lattice of dots is coherent over distances of at least several hundred of nanometers. X-ray microdiffraction probes the structure of the SOI and finds that curvature in the Si lattice is consistent with the proposed deformation of the substrate by quantum dots.

We use x-ray absorption (XAS) total electron yield measurements to investigate strain-induced splitting of the conduction band minimum in very thin Si layers and membranes. We use synchro-tron generated X rays with variable energy to excite electrons from the 2p core level of strained Si to empty electronic states in the conduction band minima. The Auger electrons emitted in the re-laxation process make the method extremely surface sensitive and reflect the position and density of states of the conduction band. We determine these parameters for elastically strained Si nanomembranes and strained-Si-on-insulator. We demonstrate sig-nificant lateral nonuniformity in the strain in strained-Si-on-insulator, while the strain is uniform on strain sharing nanomem-branes. LEEM measurements support this conclusion.

We report the fabrication and characterization of a gate-defined double quantum dot formed in a Si/SiGe nanomembrane. In the past, all gate-defined quantum dots in Si/SiGe heterostructures were formed on top of strain-graded virtual substrates. The strain grading process necessarily introduces misfit dislocations into a heterostructure, and these defects introduce lateral strain inhomogeneities, mosaic tilt, and threading dislocations. The use of a SiGe nanomembrane as the virtual substrate enables the strain relaxation to be entirely elastic, eliminating the need for misfit dislocations. However, in this approach the formation of the heterostructure is more complicated, involving two separate epitaxial growth procedures separated by a wet-transfer process that results in a buried non-epitaxial interface 625 nm from the quantum dot. We demonstrate that in spite of this buried interface in close proximity to the device, a double quantum dot can be formed that is controllable enough to enable tuning of the inter-dot tunnel coupling, the identification of spin states, and the measurement of a singlet-to-triplet transition as a function of an applied magnetic field., 9 pages, 4 figures

We demonstrate coherent driving of a single electron spin using second harmonic excitation in a Si/SiGe quantum dot. Our estimates suggest that the anharmonic dot confining potential combined with a gradient in the transverse magnetic field dominates the second harmonic response. As expected, the Rabi frequency depends quadratically on the driving amplitude and the periodicity with respect to the phase of the drive is twice that of the fundamental harmonic. The maximum Rabi frequency observed for the second harmonic is just a factor of two lower than that achieved for the first harmonic when driving at the same power. Combined with the lower demands on microwave circuitry when operating at half the qubit frequency, these observations indicate that second harmonic driving can be a useful technique for future quantum computation architectures., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures

To assess possible improvements in the electronic performance of two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) in silicon, SiGe/Si/SiGe heterostructures are grown on fully elastically relaxed single-crystal SiGe nanomembranes produced through a strain engineering approach. This procedure eliminates the formation of dislocations in the heterostructure. Top-gated Hall bar devices are fabricated to enable magnetoresistivity and Hall effect measurements. Both Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and the quantum Hall effect are observed at low temperatures, demonstrating the formation of high-quality 2DEGs. Values of charge carrier mobility as a function of carrier density extracted from these measurements are at least as high or higher than those obtained from companion measurements made on heterostructures grown on conventional strain graded substrates. In all samples, impurity scattering appears to limit the mobility.

The operation of solid-state qubits often relies on single-shot readout using a nanoelectronic charge sensor, and the detection of events in a noisy sensor signal is crucial for high fidelity readout of such qubits. The most common detection scheme, comparing the signal to a threshold value, is accurate at low noise levels but is not robust to low-frequency noise and signal drift. We describe an alternative method for identifying charge sensor events using wavelet edge detection. The technique is convenient to use and we show that, with realistic signals and a single tunable parameter, wavelet detection can outperform thresholding and is significantly more tolerant to 1/f and low-frequency noise., 11 pages, 4 figures