Valley Splitting in low-density quantum-confined heterostructures studied using tight-binding models
Abstract
A detailed study of reduced-basis tight-binding models of electrons in semiconducting quantum wells is presented. The focus is on systems with degenerate valleys, such as silicon in silicon germanium heterostructures, in the low-density limit, relevant to proposed quantum computing architectures. Analytic results for the bound states of systems with hard-wall boundaries are presented and used to characterize the valley splitting in silicon quantum wells. The analytic solution in a no-spin-orbit model agrees well with larger tight-binding calculations that do include spin-orbit coupling. Numerical investigations of the valley splitting for finite band offsets are presented that indicate that the hard-wall results are a good guide to the behavior in real quantum wells.
Date of this Version
10-29-2004
Recommended Citation
Boykin, Timothy B.; Klimeck, Gerhard; Friesen, Mark; Coppersmith, S. N.; von Allmen, Paul; Lee, Seungwon; and Oyafuso, Fabiano, "Valley Splitting in low-density quantum-confined heterostructures studied using tight-binding models" (2004). Other Nanotechnology Publications. Paper 124.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/nanodocs/124