The frequency dependence of microwave-induced resistance oscillations (MIROs) has been studied experimentally in high-mobility electron structures to explore the limits at which these oscillations can be observed. It is found that in dc transport experiments at frequencies above , MIROs start to quench, while above , they completely disappear. The results will need to be understood theoretically but are qualitatively discussed within a model in which forced electronic charge oscillations (plasmons) play an intermediate role in the interaction process between the radiation and the single-particle electron excitations between Landau levels.
The magnetoresistance associated with quantum interference corrections in a high mobility, gated quantum well structure is studied as a function of temperature, gate voltage, and angle of the tilted magnetic field. Particular attention is paid to the experimental extraction of phase-breaking and spin-orbit scattering times when weak anti-localization effects are prominent. Compared with metals and low mobility semiconductors the characteristic magnetic field in high mobility samples is very small and the experimental dependencies of the interference effects extend to fields several hundreds of times larger. Fitting experimental results under these conditions therefore requires theories valid for arbitrary magnetic field. It was found, however, that such a theory was unable to fit the experimental data without introducing an extra, empirical, scale factor of about 2. Measurements in tilted magnetic fields and as a function of temperature established that both the weak localization and the weak antilocalization effects have the same, orbital origin. Fits to the data confirmed that the width of the low field feature, whether a weak localization or a weak antilocalization peak, is determined by the phase-breaking time and also established that the universal (negative) magnetoresistance observed in the high field limit is associated with a temperature independent spin-orbit scattering time.
A record‐high mobility of holes, reaching 4.3 × 106 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 300 mK in an epitaxial strained germanium (s‐Ge) semiconductor, grown on a standard silicon wafer, is reported. This major breakthrough is achieved due to the development of state‐of‐the‐art epitaxial growth technology culminating in superior monocrystalline quality of the s‐Ge material platform with a very low density of background impurities and other imperfections. As a consequence, the hole mobility in s‐Ge appears to be ≈2 times higher than the highest electron mobility in strained silicon. In addition to the record mobility, this material platform reveals a unique combination of properties, which are a very large and tuneable effective g*‐factor (>18), a very low percolation density (5 × 109 cm−2) and a small effective mass (0.054 m0). This long‐sought combination of parameters in one material system is important for the research and development of low‐temperature electronics with reduced Joule heating and for quantum‐electronics circuits based on spin qubits.
We report charge detection studies of a lateral double quantum dot with controllable charge states and tunable tunnel coupling. Using an integrated electrometer, we characterize the equilibrium state of a single electron trapped in the double-dot (artificial molecule) by measuring the average occupation of one dot. We present a model where the electrostatic coupling between the molecule and the sensor is taken into account explicitly. From the measurements, we extract the temperature of the isolated electron and the tunnel coupling energy. It is found that this coupling can be tuned between 0 and in our device.
We perform Landau-Zener-Stückelberg-Majorana (LZSM) spectroscopy on a system with strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI), realized as a single hole confined in a gated double quantum dot. Analogous to electron systems, at a magnetic field and high modulation frequencies, we observe photon-assisted tunneling between dots, which smoothly evolves into the typical LZSM funnel-shaped interference pattern as the frequency is decreased. In contrast to electrons, the SOI enables an additional, efficient spin-flip interdot tunneling channel, introducing a distinct interference pattern at finite . Magnetotransport spectra at low-frequency LZSM driving show the two channels to be equally coherent. High-frequency LZSM driving reveals complex photon-assisted tunneling pathways, both spin conserving and spin flip, which form closed loops at critical magnetic fields. In one such loop, an arbitrary hole spin state is inverted, opening the way toward its all-electrical manipulation.
Hole transport experiments were performed on a gated double quantum dot device defined in a - heterostructure with a single hole occupancy in each dot. The charging diagram of the device was mapped out using charge detection confirming that the single hole limit is reached. In that limit, a detailed study of the two-hole spin system was performed using high bias magnetotransport spectroscopy. In contrast to electron systems, the hole spin was found not to be conserved during interdot resonant tunneling. This allows one to fully map out the two-hole energy spectrum as a function of the magnitude and the direction of the external magnetic field. The heavy-hole factor was extracted and shown to be strongly anisotropic, with a value of 1.45 for a perpendicular field and close to zero for an in-plane field as required for hybridizing schemes between spin and photonic quantum platforms.