arXiv subjects

M. Virgilio

Publications and source records attributed to M. Virgilio.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Lattice deformation at the sub-micron scale: X-ray nanobeam measurements of elastic strain in electron shuttling devices

The lattice strain induced by metallic electrodes can impair the functionality of advanced quantum devices operating with electron or hole spins. Here we investigate the deformation induced by CMOS-manufactured titanium nitride electrodes on the lattice of a buried, 10 nm-thick Si/SiGe Quantum Well by means of nanobeam Scanning X-ray Diffraction Microscopy. We were able to measure TiN electrode-induced local modulations of the strain tensor components in the range of $2 - 8 \times 10^{-4}$ with ~60 nm lateral resolution. We have evaluated that these strain fluctuations are reflected into local modulations of the potential of the conduction band minimum larger than 2 meV, which is close to the orbital energy of an electrostatic quantum dot. We observe that the sign of the strain modulations at a given depth of the quantum well layer depends on the lateral dimensions of the electrodes. Since our work explores the impact of device geometry on the strain-induced energy landscape, it enables further optimization of the design of scaled CMOS-processed quantum devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Quantum spin Hall phase in GeSn heterostructures on silicon

Quantum phases of solid-state electron systems look poised to sustain exotic phenomena and a very rich spin physics. We propose a practical silicon-based architecture that spontaneously sustains topological properties, while being fully compatible with the high-volume manufacturing capabilities of modern microelectronic foundries. Here we show how Ge1-xSnx alloys, an emerging group IV semiconductor, can be engineered into junctions that demonstrate a broken gap alignment. We predict such basic building block undergo a quantum phase transition that can elegantly accommodate the existence of gate-controlled chiral edge states directly on Si. This will enable tantalizing prospects for designing integrated circuits hosting quantum spin hall insulators and advanced topological functionalities.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

A high-mobility hole bilayer in a germanium double quantum well

We design, fabricate, and study a hole bilayer in a strained germanium double quantum well. Magnetotransport characterisation of double quantum well field-effect transistors as a function of gate voltage reveals the population of two hole channels with a high combined mobility of 3.34$\times$10$^5$ cm$^2$/Vs and a low percolation density of 2.38$\times$10$^{10}$ cm$^{-2}$. We resolve the individual population of the channels from the interference patterns of the Landau fan diagram. At a density of 2.0$\times$10$^{11}$ cm$^{-2}$ the system is in resonance and we observe an anti-crossing of the first two bilayer subbands characterized by a symmetric-antisymmetric gap of $\sim$0.69 meV, in agreement with Schrödinger-Poisson simulations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Atomic-scale insights into semiconductor heterostructures: from experimental three-dimensional analysis of the interface to a generalized theory of interface roughness scattering

We develop a generalized theory for the scattering process produced by interface roughness on charge carriers and which is suitable for any semiconductor heterostructure. By exploiting our experimental insights into the three-dimensional atomic landscape obtained on Ge/GeSi heterointerfaces obtained by atom probe tomography, we have been able to define the full set of interface parameters relevant to the scattering potential, including both the in-plane and axial correlation inside real diffuse interfaces. Our experimental findings indicate a partial coherence of the interface roughness along the growth direction within the interfaces. We show that it is necessary to include this feature, previously neglected by theoretical models, when heterointerfaces characterized by finite interface widths are taken into consideration.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Room temperature operation of n-type Ge/SiGe terahertz quantum cascade lasers predicted by non-equilibrium Green's functions

n-type Ge/SiGe terahertz quantum cascade laser are investigated using non-equilibrium Green's functions calculations. We compare the temperature dependence of the terahertz gain properties with an equivalent GaAs/AlGaAs QCL design. In the Ge/SiGe case, the gain is found to be much more robust to temperature increase, enabling operation up to room temperature. The better temperature robustness with respect to III-V is attributed to the much weaker interaction with optical phonons. The effect of lower interface quality is investigated and can be partly overcome by engineering smoother quantum confinement via multiple barrier heights.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Photoluminescence study of interband transitions in few-layer, pseudomorphic, and strain-unbalanced Ge/GeSi multiple quantum wells

In this paper we investigate the structural and optical properties of few strain-unbalanced multiple Ge/GeSi quantum wells pseudomorphically grown on GeSi reverse-graded substrates. The obtained high epitaxial quality demonstrates that strain symmetrization is not a mandatory requirement for few quantum-well repetitions. Photoluminescence data, supported by a thorough theoretical modeling, allow us to unambiguously disentangle the spectral features of the quantum wells from those originating in the virtual substrate and to evaluate the impact on the optical properties of key parameters, such as quantum confinement, layer compositions, excess carrier density, and lattice strain. This detailed understanding of the radiative recombination processes is of paramount importance for the development of Ge/GeSi-based optical devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Low disordered, stable, and shallow germanium quantum wells: a playground for spin and hybrid quantum technology

Buried-channel semiconductor heterostructures are an archetype material platform to fabricate gated semiconductor quantum devices. Sharp confinement potential is obtained by positioning the channel near the surface, however nearby surface states degrade the electrical properties of the starting material. In this paper we demonstrate a two-dimensional hole gas of high mobility ($5\times 10^{5}$ cm$^2$/Vs) in a very shallow strained germanium channel, which is located only 22 nm below the surface. This high mobility leads to mean free paths $\approx6 μm$, setting new benchmarks for holes in shallow FET devices. Carriers are confined in an undoped Ge/SiGe heterostructure with reduced background contamination, sharp interfaces, and high uniformity. The top-gate of a dopant-less field effect transistor controls the carrier density in the channel. The high mobility, along with a percolation density of $1.2\times 10^{11}\text{ cm}^{-2}$, light effective mass (0.09 m$_e$), and high g-factor (up to $7$) highlight the potential of undoped Ge/SiGe as a low-disorder material platform for hybrid quantum technologies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Gate-controlled quantum dots and superconductivity in planar germanium

Superconductors and semiconductors are crucial platforms in the field of quantum computing. They can be combined to hybrids, bringing together physical properties that enable the discovery of new emergent phenomena and provide novel strategies for quantum control. The involved semiconductor materials, however, suffer from disorder, hyperfine interactions or lack of planar technology. Here we realise an approach that overcomes these issues altogether and integrate gate-defined quantum dots and superconductivity into a material system with strong spin-orbit coupling. In our germanium heterostructures, heavy holes with mobilities exceeding 500,000 cm$^2$/Vs are confined in shallow quantum wells that are directly contacted by annealed aluminium leads. We demonstrate gate-tunable superconductivity and find a characteristic voltage $I_cR_n$ that exceeds 10 $μ$V. Germanium therefore has great promise for fast and coherent quantum hardware and, being compatible with standard manufacturing, could become a leading material in the quantum revolution.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Spin-dependent direct gap emission in tensile-strained Ge films on Si substrates

The circular polarization of direct gap emission of Ge is studied in optically-excited tensile-strained Ge-on-Si heterostructures as a function of doping and temperature. Owing to the spin-dependent optical selection rules, the radiative recombinations involving strain-split light (cG-LH) and heavy hole (cG-HH) bands are unambiguously resolved. The fundamental cG-LH transition is found to have a low temperature circular polarization degree of about 85% despite an off-resonance excitation of more than 300 meV. By photoluminescence (PL) measurements and tight binding calculations we show that this exceptionally high value is due to the peculiar energy dependence of the optically-induced electron spin population. Finally, our observation of the direct gap doublet clarifies that the light hole contribution, previously considered to be negligible, can dominate the room temperature PL even at low tensile strain values of about 0.2%.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2002

Dynamical systems and computable information

We present some new results which relate information to chaotic dynamics. In our approach the quantity of information is measured by the Algorithmic Information Content (Kolmogorov complexity) or by a sort of computable version of it (Computable Information Content) in which the information is measured by the use of a suitable universal data compression algorithm. We apply these notions to the study of dynamical systems by considering the asymptotic behavior of the quantity of information necessary to describe their orbits. When a system is ergodic, this method provides an indicator which equals the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy almost everywhere. Moreover, if the entropy is 0, our method gives new indicators which measure the unpredictability of the system and allows to classify various kind of weak chaos. Actually this is the main motivation of this work. The behaviour of a zero entropy dynamical system is far to be completely predictable exept that in particular cases. In fact there are 0 entropy systems which exibit a sort of {\it weak chaos} where the information necessary to describe the orbit behavior increases with time more than logarithmically (periodic case) even if less than linearly (positive entropy case). Also, we believe that the above method is useful for the classification of zero entropy time series. To support this point of view, we show some theoretical and experimenthal results in specific cases.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2002

Entropic Analysis of non-Stationary Sequences

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the analysis of non-stationary time series by means of the method of diffusion entropy. For this purpose, we first study the case when infinitely many time series, as different realizations of the same dynamic process, are available, so as to adopt the Gibbs ensemble perspective. We solve the problem of establishing under which conditions scaling emerges from within this perspective. Then, we study the more challenging problem of creating a diffusion process from only one single (non-stationary) time series. The conversion of this single sequence into many diffusional trajectories is equivalent to creating a non-Gibbsian ensemble. However, adopting a probabilistic approach to evaluate the contribution of any system of this non-Gibbsian ensemble, and using for it the theoretical Gibbsian prescription of the earlier case, we find a recipe that fits accurately the numerical results. With the help of this recipe we show that nonstationary time series produce either anomalous scaling with ordinary statistics or ordinary scaling with anomalous statistics. From this recipe we also derive an attractive way to explain the entropy time evolution, as resulting from two distinct uncertainty sources, the lack of information on the trajectory initial condition, and the lack of control on random trajectories.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2002

Compression and diffusion: a joint approach to detect complexity

The adoption of the Kolmogorov-Sinai (KS) entropy is becoming a popular research tool among physicists, especially when applied to a dynamical system fitting the conditions of validity of the Pesin theorem. The study of time series that are a manifestation of system dynamics whose rules are either unknown or too complex for a mathematical treatment, is still a challenge since the KS entropy is not computable, in general, in that case. Here we present a plan of action based on the joint action of two procedures, both related to the KS entropy, but compatible with computer implementation through fast and efficient programs. The former procedure, called Compression Algorithm Sensitive To Regularity (CASToRe), establishes the amount of order by the numerical evaluation of algorithmic compressibility. The latter, called Complex Analysis of Sequences via Scaling AND Randomness Assessment (CASSANDRA), establishes the complexity degree through the numerical evaluation of the strength of an anomalous effect. This is the departure, of the diffusion process generated by the observed fluctuations, from ordinary Brownian motion. The CASSANDRA algorithm shares with CASToRe a connection with the Kolmogorov complexity. This makes both algorithms especially suitable to study the transition from dynamics to thermodynamics, and the case of non-stationary time series as well. The benefit of the joint action of these two methods is proven by the analysis of artificial sequences with the same main properties as the real time series to which the joint use of these two methods will be applied in future research work.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2001

Facing Non-Stationary Conditions with a New Indicator of Entropy Increase: The Cassandra Algorithm

We address the problem of detecting non-stationary effects in time series (in particular fractal time series) by means of the Diffusion Entropy Method (DEM). This means that the experimental sequence under study, of size $N$, is explored with a window of size $L << N$. The DEM makes a wise use of the statistical information available and, consequently, in spite of the modest size of the window used, does succeed in revealing local statistical properties, and it shows how they change upon moving the windows along the experimental sequence. The method is expected to work also to predict catastrophic events before their occurrence.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗