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Electrode-induced lattice distortions in GaAs multi-quantum-dot arrays

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Abstract

Increasing the number of quantum bits while preserving precise control of their quantum electronic properties is a significant challenge in materials design for the development of semiconductor quantum computing devices. Semiconductor heterostructures can host multiple quantum dots that are electrostatically defined by voltages applied to an array of metallic nanoelectrodes. The structural distortion of multiple-quantum-dot devices due to elastic stress associated with the electrodes has been difficult to predict because of the large micrometer-scale overall sizes of the devices, the complex spatial arrangement of the electrodes, and the sensitive dependence of the magnitude and spatial variation of the stress on processing conditions. Synchrotron X-ray nanobeam Bragg diffraction studies of a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure reveal the magnitude and nanoscale variation of these distortions. Investigations of individual linear electrodes reveal lattice tilts consistent with a 28-MPa compressive residual stress in the electrodes. The angular magnitude of the tilts varies by up to 20% over distances of less than 200 nm along the length of the electrodes, consistent with heterogeneity in the metal residual stress. A similar variation of the crystal tilt is observed in multiple-quantum-dot devices, due to a combination of the variation of the stress and the complex electrode arrangement. The heterogeneity in particular can lead to significant challenges in the scaling of multiple-quantum-dot devices due to differences between the charging energies of dots and uncertainty in the potential energy landscape. Alternatively, if incorporated in design, stress presents a new degree of freedom in device fabrication.

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Acknowledgments

A.P. and P.G.E. acknowledge support from the U.S. DOE, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering, under contract no. DE-FG02-04ER46147 for the X-ray scattering studies and analysis. Work at TU Delft was supported by The Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA

    Anastasios Pateras & Paul G. Evans

  2. Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, IM2NPUMR 7334, Université de Toulon, Marseille, 13397, France

    Jérôme Carnis & Marie-Ingrid Richard

  3. ID01/ESRF, F-38043, Grenoble Cedex, France

    Jérôme Carnis, Marie-Ingrid Richard, Steven J. Leake & Tobias U. Schülli

  4. QuTech and Kavli Institute of NanoScience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2600 GA, The Netherlands

    Uditendu Mukhopadhyay, Juan Pablo Dehollain & Lieven M. K. Vandersypen

  5. Laboratory for Solid State Physics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, CH-8093, Switzerland

    Christian Reichl & Werner Wegscheider

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  1. Anastasios Pateras
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Correspondence to Anastasios Pateras.

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Pateras, A., Carnis, J., Mukhopadhyay, U. et al. Electrode-induced lattice distortions in GaAs multi-quantum-dot arrays. Journal of Materials Research 34, 1291–1301 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2019.61

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