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Fabrication, characterization, and mechanical loading of Si/Si-Ge membranes for spin-qubit devices

Lucas Marcogliese1, Ouviyan Sabapathy1, Rudolf Richter2, Jhih-Sian Tu3, Dominique Bougeard2, and Lars R. Schreiber1,4,*

  • *Contact author: lars.schreiber@physik.rwth-aachen.de

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 014054 – Published 22 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/rw7k-pcvw

Abstract

Si/SiGe heterostructures on bulk Si substrates have been shown to host high-fidelity electron spin qubits. Building a scalable quantum processor would, however, benefit from further improvement of critical material properties such as the valley-splitting landscape. Flexible control of the strain field and the out-of-plane electric field Ez may be decisive for valley-splitting enhancement in the presence of alloy disorder. We envision the Si/SiGe membrane as a versatile scientific platform for investigating intervalley scattering mechanisms which have thus far remained elusive in conventional Si/SiGe heterostructures and have the potential to yield favorable valley-splitting distributions. Here, we report the fabrication of locally etched, suspended SiGe/Si/SiGe membranes from two different heterostructures and apply the process to realize a spin-qubit shuttling device on a membrane for future valley mapping experiments. The membranes have a thickness in the micrometer range and can be metallized to form a back-gate contact for extended control over the electric field. To probe their elastic properties, the membranes are stressed by loading with a profilometer stylus at room temperature. We distinguish between linear elastic and buckling modes, each offering mechanisms through which strain can be coupled to spin qubits.

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