2006/02/28 by Mark Friesen, M. A. Eriksson, S. N. Coppersmith · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Energy level splitting #Field (mathematics) #Magnetic field #Materials science #Physics #Quantum #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Quantum well #Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #Wave function #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.2387975
published as Appl. Phys. Lett. v89, p202106 (2006) · Published version
openalex publication_date 2006/11/13 · arxiv created 2006/11/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The authors investigate the magnetic field dependence of the energy splitting between low-lying valley states for electrons in a Si∕SiGe quantum well tilted with respect to the crystallographic axis. The presence of atomic steps at the quantum well interface may explain the unexpected, strong suppression of the valley splitting observed in recent experiments. The authors find that the suppression is caused by an interference effect associated with multiple steps, and that the magnetic field dependence arises from the lateral confinement of the electronic wave function. Using numerical simulations, the authors clarify the role of step disorder, obtaining quantitative agreement with the experiments.