Electronic density of states engineering of a 3D 14 nm Si/Ge alloy metalattice

摘要

Si/Ge nanostructures have attracted much attention since they are compatible with current microelectronics technology. The geometry and composition variations can be used to tune their electronic properties. Here, we introduce a 3D Si/Ge superlattice, metalattice, made of more volumetric meta-atoms and thinner metabonds between them. Its size varies from a few tens to hundreds of nanometers and can be taken as a mesoscale physics platform. We intend to bring a metallic character to such an alloy metalattice. This requires that the quantum confinement and chemical composition act in a complementary way. The tight-binding method is employed and it is confirmed that a 3D uniform density of states across the whole metalattice is possible. Search for the preferred electronic structure now transforms to the problem of finding the appropriate geometry.