Position-Controlled Functionalization of Vacancies in Silicon by Single-Ion Implanted Germanium Atoms

Special point defects in semiconductors have been envisioned as suitable components for quantum-information technology. The identification of new deep centers in silicon that can be easily activated and controlled is a main target of the research in the field. Vacancy-related complexes are suitable to provide deep electronic levels but they are hard to control spatially. With the spirit of investigating solid state devices with intentional vacancy-related defects at controlled position, the functionalization of silicon vacancies is reported on here by implanting Ge atoms through single-ion implantation, producing Ge-vacancy (GeV) complexes. The quantum transport through an array of GeV complexes in a silicon-based transistor is investigated. By exploiting a model based on an extended Hubbard Hamiltonian derived from ab initio results, anomalous activation energy values of the thermally activated conductance of both quasi-localized and delocalized many-body states are obtained, compared to conventional dopants. Such states are identified, forming the upper Hubbard band, as responsible for the experimental sub-threshold transport across the transistor. The combination of the model with the single-ion implantation method enables future research for the engineering of GeV complexes toward the creation of spatially controllable individual defects in silicon for applications in quantum information technology.