Valley Polarization in Si(100) at Zero Magnetic Field

Abstract

The valley splitting, which lifts the degeneracy of the lowest two valley states in a SiO${}_2$/(100)Si/SiO${}_2$ quantum well is examined through transport measurements. We demonstrate that the valley splitting can be observed directly as a step in the conductance defining a boundary between valley-unpolarized and polarized regions. This persists to well above liquid helium temperature and shows no dependence on magnetic field, indicating that single-particle valley splitting and valley-polarization exist in (100) silicon even at zero magnetic field.

Accpeted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

References in corpus (2)

• Valley splitting of AlAs two-dimensional electrons in a perpendicular magnetic field
• Giant low-temperature piezoresistance effect in AlAs two-dimensional electrons

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