Valley splitting in strained silicon quantum wells modeled with 2° miscuts, step disorder, and alloy disorder

Valley splitting (VS) in strained SiGe/Si/SiGe quantum wells grown on (001) and 2 degrees miscut substrates is computed in a magnetic field. Calculations of flat structures significantly overestimate, while calculations of perfectly ordered structures underestimate experimentally observed VS. Step disorder and confinement alloy disorder raise the VS to the experimentally observed levels. Atomistic alloy disorder is identified as the critical physics, which cannot be modeled with analytical effective mass theory. NEMO-3D is used to simulate up to 10(6) atoms, where strain is computed in the valence-force field and electronic structure in the sp(3)d(5)s(*) model. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.