Advancements and challenges in strained group-IV-based optoelectronic materials stressed by ion beam treatment.

In this perspective article, we discuss the application of ion implantation to manipulate strain (by either neutralizing or inducing compressive or tensile states) in suspended thin films. Emphasizing the pressing need for a high-mobility silicon-compatible transistor or a direct bandgap group-IV semiconductor that is compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, we underscore the distinctive features of different methods of ion beam-induced alteration of material morphology. The article examines the precautions needed during experimental procedures and data analysis and explores routes for potential scalable adoption by the semiconductor industry.

Benchmarking of X-Ray Fluorescence Microscopy with Ion Beam Implanted Samples Showing Detection Sensitivity of Hundreds of Atoms.

Single impurities in insulators are now often used for quantum sensors and single photon sources, while nanoscale semiconductor doping features are being constructed for electrical contacts in quantum technology devices, implying that new methods for sensitive, non-destructive imaging of single- or few-atom structures are needed. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) can provide nanoscale imaging with chemical specificity, and features comprising as few as 100 000 atoms have been detected without any need for specialized or destructive sample preparation. Presently, the ultimate limits of sensitivity of XRF are unknown - here, gallium dopants in silicon are investigated using a high brilliance, synchrotron source collimated to a small spot.

Highly efficient THz four-wave mixing in doped silicon.

Third-order non-linearities are important because they allow control over light pulses in ubiquitous high-quality centro-symmetric materials like silicon and silica. Degenerate four-wave mixing provides a direct measure of the third-order non-linear sheet susceptibility χL (where L represents the material thickness) as well as technological possibilities such as optically gated detection and emission of photons. Using picosecond pulses from a free electron laser, we show that silicon doped with P or Bi has a value of χL in the THz domain that is higher than that reported for any other material in any wavelength band.

The multi-photon induced Fano effect.

The ordinary Fano effect occurs in many-electron atoms and requires an autoionizing state. With such a state, photo-ionization may proceed via pathways that interfere, and the characteristic asymmetric resonance structures appear in the continuum. Here we demonstrate that Fano structure may also be induced without need of auto-ionization, by dressing the continuum with an ordinary bound state in any atom by a coupling laser.

Giant non-linear susceptibility of hydrogenic donors in silicon and germanium.

Implicit summation is a technique for the conversion of sums over intermediate states in multiphoton absorption and the high-order susceptibility in hydrogen into simple integrals. Here, we derive the equivalent technique for hydrogenic impurities in multi-valley semiconductors. While the absorption has useful applications, it is primarily a loss process; conversely, the non-linear susceptibility is a crucial parameter for active photonic devices.

Spin preservation during THz orbital pumping of shallow donors in silicon.

We investigate the spin relaxation under conditions of optical excitation between the Rydberg orbital states of phosphorus donor impurities in silicon. Here we show that the spin relaxation is less than a few percent, even after multiple excitation/relaxation cycles. The observed high level of spin preservation may be useful for readout cycling or in quantum information schemes where coupling of neighbor qubits is via orbital excitation.

Coherent superpositions of three states for phosphorous donors in silicon prepared using THz radiation.

Superposition of orbital eigenstates is crucial to quantum technology utilizing atoms, such as atomic clocks and quantum computers, and control over the interaction between atoms and their neighbours is an essential ingredient for both gating and readout. The simplest coherent wavefunction control uses a two-eigenstate admixture, but more control over the spatial distribution of the wavefunction can be obtained by increasing the number of states in the wavepacket. Here we demonstrate THz laser pulse control of Si:P orbitals using multiple orbital state admixtures, observing beat patterns produced by Zeeman splitting.

Optical pumping and readout of bismuth hyperfine states in silicon for atomic clock applications.

The push for a semiconductor-based quantum information technology has renewed interest in the spin states and optical transitions of shallow donors in silicon, including the donor bound exciton transitions in the near-infrared and the Rydberg, or hydrogenic, transitions in the mid-infrared. The deepest group V donor in silicon, bismuth, has a large zero-field ground state hyperfine splitting, comparable to that of rubidium, upon which the now-ubiquitous rubidium atomic clock time standard is based. Here we show that the ground state hyperfine populations of bismuth can be read out using the mid-infrared Rydberg transitions, analogous to the optical readout of the rubidium ground state populations upon which rubidium clock technology is based.

Coherent creation and destruction of orbital wavepackets in Si:P with electrical and optical read-out.

The ability to control dynamics of quantum states by optical interference, and subsequent electrical read-out, is crucial for solid state quantum technologies. Ramsey interference has been successfully observed for spins in silicon and nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond, and for orbital motion in InAs quantum dots. Here we demonstrate terahertz optical excitation, manipulation and destruction via Ramsey interference of orbital wavepackets in Si:P with electrical read-out.

Si:P as a laboratory analogue for hydrogen on high magnetic field white dwarf stars.

Laboratory spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen in a magnetic flux density of 10(5) T (1 gigagauss), the maximum observed on high-field magnetic white dwarfs, is impossible because practically available fields are about a thousand times less. In this regime, the cyclotron and binding energies become equal. Here we demonstrate Lyman series spectra for phosphorus impurities in silicon up to the equivalent field, which is scaled to 32.

Experimental determination of the Rashba coefficient in InSb/InAlSb quantum wells at zero magnetic field and elevated temperatures.

We report the optical measurement of the spin dynamics at elevated temperatures and in zero magnetic field for two types of degenerately doped n-InSb quantum wells (QWs), one asymmetric (sample A) and one symmetric (sample B) with regards to the electrostatic potential across the QW. Making use of three directly determined experimental parameters: the spin lifetime, τ(s), the sheet carrier concentration, n, and the electron mobility, μ, we directly extract the zero-field spin splitting. For the asymmetric sample where the Rashba interaction is the dominant source of spin splitting, we deduce a room temperature Rashba parameter of α = 0.

Coherent control of Rydberg states in silicon.

Laser cooling and electromagnetic traps have led to a revolution in atomic physics, yielding dramatic discoveries ranging from Bose-Einstein condensation to the quantum control of single atoms. Of particular interest, because they can be used in the quantum control of one atom by another, are excited Rydberg states, where wavefunctions are expanded from their ground-state extents of less than 0.1 nm to several nanometres and even beyond; this allows atoms far enough apart to be non-interacting in their ground states to strongly interact in their excited states.

Continuous voltage tunability of intersubband relaxation times in coupled SiGe quantum well structures using ultrafast spectroscopy.

We demonstrate continuous voltage control of the nonradiative transition lifetime in semiconductor heterostructures. The results were obtained by picosecond time-resolved experiments on biased SiGe valence band quantum well structures using a free electron laser. By varying the applied voltage, the intersubband hole relaxation times for quantum well structures were varied by a factor of 2 as the wave functions and their overlaps were tuned.

Spin relaxation by transient monopolar and bipolar optical orientation.

We have used two-color time-resolved spectroscopy to measure the relaxation of electron spin polarizations in a bulk semiconductor. The circularly polarized pump beam induces a polarization either by direct excitation from the valence band, or by free-carrier (Drude) absorption when tuned to an energy below the band gap. We find that the spin relaxation time, measured with picosecond time resolution by resonant induced Faraday rotation in both cases, increases in the presence of photogenerated holes.