Events at Physics |
Events on Wednesday, July 8th, 2026
- Social Gathering
- Summer Recess
- Time: 12:30 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: Lawn in front of Birge Hall
- Speaker: Everyone is welcome
- Abstract: If the weather is nice, we'll meet on Bascom Hill (in front of Birge Hall). Feel free to bring your lunch. We will borrow cornhole and ladder toss from the L&S Dean's Office and play outside for 30 minutes. Some of us will probably walk up together, meeting in the courtyard between Chamberlin and Sterling ~12:25. Feel free to walk with us! No need to sign up. Just come join us!
- Host: Sharon Kahn
- Thesis Defense
- Heterostructure modifications and strain engineering for valley splitting enhancement in Si/SiGe quantum dots for quantum computation
- Time: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 5310 or
- Speaker: Emily Joseph
- Abstract: Quantum dots hosted in Si/SiGe heterostructures are an attractive platform for quantum computation. However, the presence of valley states in Si/SiGe quantum dots can lead to small and highly variable valley splittings. Achieving consistently large valley splittings is essential for scaling silicon quantum dot qubit arrays, where low valley splitting can lead to leakage and control errors. Shear strain in a Si/SiGe heterostructure hosting a Wiggle Well has been predicted to yield deterministically large valley splittings. This work presents simulations of Si/SiGe heterostructures designed to enhance valley coupling through engineered strain. Stressed thin films deposited above realistic quantum-dot gate architectures are shown to generate more than 0.15% shear strain in silicon quantum wells located 40 nm below the surface. When combined with a Wiggle Well heterostructure, this strain is predicted to increase the deterministic component of the valley splitting beyond 200 μeV. Simulations of realistic device architectures establish practical design rules for integrating stressors with scalable silicon quantum-dot devices, providing a pathway toward higher-fidelity silicon spin qubits.
- Host: Mark Eriksson