/ Forschung

Strain Engineering of Ge Quantum Wells in Planar Ge/Si1−xGex Heterostructures

Arianna Nigro Advanced Materials Interfaces

New publication by Arianna Nigro, Alexander Vogel, Alicia Ruiz-Caridad, Vera Jo Weibel, Diego Nieri Orfatti, Johannes Trautvetter, Andrea Hofmann, Riccardo Rurali, and Ilaria Zardo (Adv. Mater. Interfaces 2025, e00620)

Germanium (Ge) has been identified as a good candidate among semiconductor-based materials for quantum applications. One of the main reasons lies in the long coherence time of spins of localized holes, its ability to host superconducting pairing correlations, and compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Recent studies reveal how the growth of strained germanium quantum wells (QWs)embedded in silicon-germanium (SiGe) barriers is crucial to enhance charges’ mobility in this system. In this work, a study is presented of the distribution of in-plane and out-of-plane strain in germanium quantum wells embedded in Si1−xGex barriers in order to engineer strain in the quantum well, thus tuning the charge mobility therein for quantum computing purposes. Therefore, experimental techniques such as Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and geometric phase analysis (GPA) are combined with Schrödinger–Poisson solver simulations in order to find the optimal quantum well thickness and silicon (Si) content in the Si1−xGex barriers to enhance and control electrical properties in Ge/SiGe planar heterostructures.

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