Alloy scattering limited transport of two-dimensional carriers in strained Si1-xGex quantum wells
Journal
Applied Physics Letters
Journal Volume
63
Journal Issue
20
Pages
2795-2797
Date Issued
1993
Author(s)
Abstract
The mobility of two-dimensional electron systems in strained Si1−xGex quantum wells was studied at low temperatures as a function of the germanium content in the well. While mobilities exceeding 30 000 cm2/V s have been achieved for pure Si layers, they dropped to less than 3000 cm2/V s for Si0.88Ge0.12 wells, demonstrating the effect of strong alloy disorder scattering. This was confirmed by the relatively weaker dependence of mobility on carrier concentration in gating experiments. By accounting for valley degeneracy effects in the standard two-dimensional alloy scattering model, an effective scattering potential Valloy=0.8±0.1 eV has been derived for electrons. Using a weaker potential, it is shown that the maximum low temperature mobilities for holes reported in literature are also consistent with the alloy scattering model.
Type
journal article