Interfacial Engineering of Semiconductor-Superconductor Junctions for High Performance Micro-Coolers

The control of electronic and thermal transport through material interfaces is crucial for numerous micro and nanoelectronics applications and quantum devices. Here we report on the engineering of the electro-thermal properties of semiconductor-superconductor (Sm-S) electronic cooler junctions by a nanoscale insulating tunnel barrier introduced between the Sm and S electrodes. Unexpectedly, such an interface barrier does not increase the junction resistance but strongly reduces the detrimental sub-gap leakage current. These features are key to achieving high cooling power tunnel junction refrigerators, and we demonstrate unparalleled performance in silicon-based Sm-S electron cooler devices with orders of magnitudes improvement in the cooling power in comparison to previous works. By adapting the junctions in strain-engineered silicon coolers we also demonstrate efficient electron temperature reduction from 300 mK to below 100 mK. Investigations on junctions with different interface quality indicate that the previously unexplained sub-gap leakage current is strongly influenced by the Sm-S interface states. These states often dictate the junction electrical resistance through the well-known Fermi level pinning effect and, therefore, superconductivity could be generally used to probe and optimize metal-semiconductor contact behaviour.

An Investigation of Boron Incorporation in SiGe MBE

The performance of many Si/SiGe devices, particularly those involving modulation doped quantum wells, will depend on the quality of the matrix and doping interfaces involved. These may be adversely affected by profile smearing of Ge and the dopant. A study of boron incorporation in SiGe, as a function of substrate temperature and Ge fraction, shows a marked difference in profile smearing for boron in Si and in the SiGe alloy. This is shown to be associated with a reduction in the temperature for transition from equilibrium to kinetically limited accumulation in the alloy.

X-Ray Characterisation of Boron Delta Layers in Si and SiGe

We demonstrate the growth, by MBE, of high sheet density B delta layers in both Si and SiGe epitaxial layers. Double Crystal X-Ray Diffraction is shown to be a non-destructive method of characterising the width of very narrow (0.3 nm) delta layers and the sheet density of the activated B. The ability of delta layers to withstand high temperature anneals is considered and it is found that a 750 °C anneal for 1 hour broadens the delta layer to beyond the width required for carrier confinement.

Residual Strain and Defect Analysis in as Grown and Annealed SiGe Layers

In this paper we address the problem of producing SiGe buffer layers of acceptable quality for the growth of symmetrically strained SiGe structures. Initially we consider SiGe layers grown to well beyond the metastable critical thickness and examine the degree of residual strain both as - grown and post anneal. The defect levels in metastable SiGe layers following high temperature anneal were also studied. A buffer layer was grown consisting of stacked metastable SiGe layers each of which is annealed in situ prior to the growth of the next layer and terminating with a 0.45 SiGe alloy. This produces nearly fully relaxed 1.15pim thick structures with threading dislocation densities of 4 × 106cm−2. Limited area growth on Si suggests that elastically relaxed material free of both threading and misfit dislocations can be produced.

Mobility spectrum computational analysis using a maximum entropy approach

A method to calculate a smooth electrical conductivity versus mobility plot ("mobility spectrum") from the classical magnetoconductivity tensor in heterogeneous structures with the help of a "maximum entropy principle" has been developed. In this approach the closeness of the fit and the entropy of the mobility spectrum are optimized. The spectrum is then the most probable one with the least influence of the personal bias of the investigator for any given set of experimental data and is maximally noncommittal with regard to the unmeasured data. The advantages of the maximum entropy mobility spectrum analysis as compared to the conventional mobility spectrum analysis are demonstrated using a synthetic dataset.