Lifetime Enhanced Transport in Silicon Due to Spin and Valley Blockade

Gabriel Lansbergen, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience
Rajib Rahman, Sandia National Laboratories
J. Verdujin, University of New South Wales
Giuseppe Tettamanzi, University of New South Wales
Nadine Collaert, Inter-University Microelectronics Center, Belgium
Serge Biesemans, Inter-University Microelectronics Center, Belgium
Gerhard Klimeck, Purdue University
Lloyd Hollenberg, University of Melbourne, Australia
Sven Rogge, University of New South Wales

Date of this Version

9-23-2011

Citation

Phys. Rev. Letters Vol. 107, No. 13 (2011)

Comments

This is the published version of G. P. Lansbergen, R. Rahman, J. Verduijn, G. C. Tettamanzi, N. Collaert, S. Biesemans, G. Klimeck, L. C. L. Hollenberg, and S. Rogge. (19 September 2011). "Lifetime-Enhanced Transport in Silicon due to Spin and Valley Blockade". First published in the Physical Review Letters and is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.136602

Abstract

We report the observation of Lifetime Enhanced Transport (LET) based on perpendicular valleys in silicon by transport spectroscopy measurements of a two-electron system in a silicon transistor. The LET is manifested as a peculiar current step in the stability diagram due to a forbidden transition between an excited state and any of the lower energy states due perpendicular valley (and spin) configurations, offering an additional current path. By employing a detailed temperature dependence study in combination with a rate equation model, we estimate the lifetime of this particular state to exceed 48 ns. The two-electron spin-valley configurations of all relevant confined quantum states in our device were obtained by a large-scale atomistic tight-binding simulation. The LET acts as a signature of the complicated valley physics in silicon; a feature that becomes increasingly important in silicon quantum devices.

Discipline(s)

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

 

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