Electrode-stress-induced nanoscale disorder in Si quantum electronic devices

Electrode-stress-induced nanoscale disorder in Si quantum electronic devices

Blog Article

Disorder in the potential-energy landscape presents a major obstacle to the more Incense rapid development of semiconductor quantum device technologies.We report a large-magnitude source of disorder, beyond commonly considered unintentional background doping or fixed charge in oxide layers: nanoscale strain fields induced by residual stresses in nanopatterned metal gates.Quantitative analysis of synchrotron coherent hard x-ray nanobeam diffraction patterns reveals gate-induced curvature and strains up to 0.03% in a buried Si quantum well within a Si/SiGe heterostructure.Electrode stress presents both challenges to the design of devices and opportunities Custom Tee associated with the lateral manipulation of electronic energy levels.