Atomic-scale insights into semiconductor heterostructures: from experimental three-dimensional analysis of the interface to a generalized theory of interface roughness scattering

Abstract

We develop a generalized theory for the scattering process produced by interface roughness on charge carriers and which is suitable for any semiconductor heterostructure. By exploiting our experimental insights into the three-dimensional atomic landscape obtained on Ge/GeSi heterointerfaces obtained by atom probe tomography, we have been able to define the full set of interface parameters relevant to the scattering potential, including both the in-plane and axial correlation inside real diffuse interfaces. Our experimental findings indicate a partial coherence of the interface roughness along the growth direction within the interfaces. We show that it is necessary to include this feature, previously neglected by theoretical models, when heterointerfaces characterized by finite interface widths are taken into consideration.

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• THz intersubband electroluminescence from n-type Ge/SiGe quantum cascade structures
• Valley splitting depending on the size and location of a silicon quantum dot
• 500-period epitaxial Ge/Si0.18Ge0.82 multi-quantum wells on silicon
• Localized Energy States Induced by Atomic-Level Interfacial Broadening in Heterostructures
• Magnetic-field-induced cavity protection for intersubband polaritons