The valley splitting (VS) of a silicon quantum dot plays an important role for the performance and scalability of silicon spin qubits. In this paper we investigate the VS of a SiGe/Si/SiGe heterostructure as a function of the size and location of the silicon quantum dot. We use the effective mass approach to describe a realistic system, which takes into account concentration fluctuations at the Si/SiGe interfaces and also the interface roughness. We predict that the size of the quantum dot is an important parameter for the enhancement of the VS and it can also induce a transition between the disorder-dominated to deterministic-enhanced regimes. Analyzing how the VS changes when we move the quantum dot in a specific direction, we obtain that the size of the quantum dot can be used to reduce the variability of the VS, which is relevant for charge/spin shuttling.

• Received 26 October 2023
• Accepted 8 March 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.8.036202