OBSERVATION OF BALLISTIC CONDUCTANCE AND AHARONOV-BOHM OSCILLATIONS IN SI/SIGE HETEROSTRUCTURES

We have fabricated quantum devices from remotely doped Si/SiGe heterostructures. The devices are interferometers (loops) similar in plan to those used in experiments on ballistic GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs devices. The loops are approximately 2r=0.8 μm in diameter with linewidths of w=0.4 μm. We have observed clear Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations that vanish systematically as the carrier temperature increases. Response of up to the second harmonic of the fundamental AB frequency e/h implies a phase coherence length of around L=1.2 μm. In some samples, we see steps in conductance G(Vg) as a function of gate voltage similar to the ballistic mode steps seen in GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs point contacts. © 1994 American Institute of Physics.