Epitaxy of strained, nuclear-spin free $^{76}$Ge quantum wells from solid source materials

Abstract

Germanium quantum well heterostructures have rapidly emerged as a leading platform for solid-state quantum information processing; however, material quality limits scalability, and higher structural quality, higher purity, as well as zero nuclear spin, are required. Here, we address these problems by employing the heaviest of Ge isotopes, by evaporating high-purity $^{76}$Ge radiation detector material, as utilized in fundamental neutrino particle physics experiments, to fabricate $^{76}$Ge/$^{28}$Si$^{76}$Ge quantum wells for quantum applications and explore the respective challenges. Specifically, we demonstrate improved results on strain-relaxed virtual Si$_{0.2}$Ge$_{0.8}$ substrates, forward graded from Si, with a dislocation density below 3.7$\cdot$10$^{5}$ cm$^{-2}$, explore nuclear spin-free solid-source molecular beam epitaxy, and demonstrate first quantum transport in $^{76}$Ge quantum wells. We demonstrate a record-level quantum well interface width of 0.3 nm by X-ray reflectivity, and quantitatively compare it to atom probe tomography and scanning transmission electron microscopy. The grown layer reveals nuclear-spin-bearing impurity concentrations below 10$^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$ and chemical impurity levels below 10$^{18}$ cm$^{-3}$, except for residual carbon attributed to the graphite crucible of the Ge source, which may reach up to 10$^{19}$ cm$^{-3}$. Low-temperature magneto-transport measurements yield electron mobilities of 6.1$\cdot$10$^4$ cm$^2$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$ at 15 mK with a carrier density of 2.2$\cdot$10$^{11}$ cm$^{-2}$, indicating that residual carbon is the dominant scattering mechanism.