Saquib Shamim

Suppression of low-frequency noise in two-dimensional electron gas at degenerately doped Si:P delta layers

We report low-frequency 1/f-noise measurements of degenerately doped Si:P delta layers at 4.2 K. The noise was found to be over six orders of magnitude lower than that of bulk Si:P systems in the metallic regime and is one of the lowest values reported for doped semiconductors. The noise was nearly independent of magnetic field at low fields, indicating negligible contribution from universal conductance fluctuations. Instead, the interaction of electrons with very few active structural two-level systems may explain the observed noise magnitude.

Spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry in strongly interacting two-dimensional electron layers in silicon and germanium.

We report experimental evidence of a remarkable spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking in two-dimensional electron systems formed by atomically confined doping of phosphorus (P) atoms inside bulk crystalline silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge). Weak localization corrections to the conductivity and the universal conductance fluctuations were both found to decrease rapidly with decreasing doping in the Si:P and Ge:P delta layers, suggesting an effect driven by Coulomb interactions. In-plane magnetotransport measurements indicate the presence of intrinsic local spin fluctuations at low doping, providing a microscopic mechanism for spontaneous lifting of the time-reversal symmetry. Our experiments suggest the emergence of a new many-body quantum state when two-dimensional electrons are confined to narrow half-filled impurity bands.

Ultralow-Noise Atomic-Scale Structures for Quantum Circuitry in Silicon

The atomically precise doping of silicon with phosphorus (Si:P) using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) promises ultimate miniaturization of field effect transistors. The one-dimensional (1D) Si:P nanowires are of particular interest, retaining exceptional conductivity down to the atomic scale, and are predicted as interconnects for a scalable silicon-based quantum computer. Here, we show that ultrathin Si:P nanowires form one of the most-stable electrical conductors, with the phenomenological Hooge parameter of low-frequency noise being as low as ≈10(-8) at 4.2 K, nearly 3 orders of magnitude lower than even carbon-nanotube-based 1D conductors. A in-built isolation from the surface charge fluctuations due to encapsulation of the wires within the epitaxial Si matrix is the dominant cause for the observed suppression of noise. Apart from quantum information technology, our results confirm the promising prospects for precision-doped Si:P structures in atomic-scale circuitry for the 11 nm technology node and beyond.

Dephasing rates for weak localization and universal conductance fluctuations in two dimensional Si:P and Ge:P δ-layers

We report quantum transport measurements on two dimensional (2D) Si:P and Ge:P δ-layers and compare the inelastic scattering rates relevant for weak localization (WL) and universal conductance fluctuations (UCF) for devices of various doping densities (0.3–2.5 × 1018 m−2) at low temperatures (0.3–4.2 K). The phase breaking rate extracted experimentally from measurements of WL correction to conductivity and UCF agree well with each other within the entire temperature range. This establishes that WL and UCF, being the outcome of quantum interference phenomena, are governed by the same dephasing rate.

Thermoelectric properties of electrostatically tunable antidot lattices

We report on the fabrication and characterization of a device which allows the formation of an antidot lattice (ADL) using only electrostatic gating. The antidot potential and Fermi energy of the system can be tuned independently. Well defined commensurability features in magnetoresistance as well as magnetothermopower are observed. We show that the thermopower can be used to efficiently map out the potential landscape of the ADL.

Number-Resolved Single-Photon Detection with Ultralow Noise van der Waals Hybrid

Van der Waals hybrids of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides exhibit an extremely large response to optical excitation, yet counting of photons with single-photon resolution is not achieved. Here, a dual-gated bilayer graphene (BLG) and molybdenum disulphide (MoS2 ) hybrid are demonstrated, where opening a band gap in the BLG allows extremely low channel (receiver) noise and large optical gain (≈1010 ) simultaneously. The resulting device is capable of unambiguous determination of the Poissonian emission statistics of an optical source with single-photon resolution at an operating temperature of 80 K, dark count rate 0.07 Hz, and linear dynamic range of ≈40 dB. Single-shot number-resolved single-photon detection with van der Waals heterostructures may impact multiple technologies, including the linear optical quantum computation.

High Mobility HgTe Microstructures for Quantum Spin Hall Studies

The topic of two-dimensional topological insulators has blossomed after the first observation of the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect in HgTe quantum wells. However, studies have been hindered by the relative fragility of the edge states. Their stability has been a subject of both theoretical and experimental investigation in the past decade. Here, we present a new generation of high quality (Cd,Hg)Te/HgTe-structures based on a new chemical etching method. From magnetotransport measurements on macro- and microscopic Hall bars, we extract electron mobilities μ up to about 400 × 103 cm2/(V s), and the mean free path λmfp becomes comparable to the sample dimensions. The Hall bars show quantized spin Hall conductance, which is remarkably stable up to 15 K. The clean and robust edge states allow us to fabricate high quality side-contacted Josephson junctions, which are significant in the context of topological superconductivity. Our results open up new avenues for fundamental research on QSH effect as well as potential applications in spintronics and topological quantum computation.

Electrostatic modulation of periodic potentials in a two-dimensional electron gas: from antidot lattice to quantum dot lattice

We use a dual gated device structure to introduce a gate-tuneable periodic potential in a GaAs/AlGaAs two dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Using only a suitable choice of gate voltages we can controllably alter the potential landscape of the bare 2DEG, inducing either a periodic array of antidots or quantum dots. Antidots are artificial scattering centers, and therefore allow for a study of electron dynamics. In particular, we show that the thermovoltage of an antidot lattice is particularly sensitive to the relative positions of the Fermi level and the antidot potential. A quantum dot lattice, on the other hand, provides the opportunity to study correlated electron physics. We find that its current-voltage characteristics display a voltage threshold, as well as a power law scaling, indicative of collective Coulomb blockade in a disordered background.

Origin of noise in two dimensionally doped silicon and germanium

We present the study of low-frequency noise, or 1/f noise, in degenerately doped Si:P and Ge:P δ-layers at low temperatures. For the Si:P δ-layers we find that the noise is several orders of magnitude lower than that of bulk Si:P systems in the metallic regime and is one of the lowest values reported for doped semiconductors. Ge:P δ-layers as a function of perpendicular magnetic field, shows a factor of two reduction in noise magnitude at the scale of Bφ, where Bφ is phase breaking field. We show that this is a characteristic feature of universal conductance fluctuations.