The Statistical Description of de Haas—van Alphen Oscillations in Silicon Nanosandwich

Abstract

Here, we present room temperature de Haas—van Alphen oscillations measured in silicon nanosandwich in a weak magnetic field. Our results demonstrate a decrease of the oscillation magnitude with increasing magnetic field strength. This behavior is drastically different from the results reported earlier and it is attributed to the low-dimensionality of the studied structure, which enables room temperature observation of the de Haas—van Alphen effect in moderate magnetic fields up to 1000 Oe. We employ the classic Lifshitz-Kosevich formalism based on the dependence of the carrier effective mass on the applied magnetic field, to statistically describe this effect. We note that the statistical approach allows a more accurate interpretation of the experimentally observed results as compared to the previously used approach on the basis of classical thermodynamics. In particular, it allows us to highlight the non-oscillating contribution of the magnetization and its impact on the shape of the observed curve. Furthermore, we analyze the relation of the obtained carrier effective mass with the specific features of the studied silicon nanosandwich, which are determined by the formation of negative-U delta barriers within this structure.