Mike Thewalt
Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Highly enriched 28Si – a “semiconductor vacuum”

Silicon devices are the basis for our electronics, communications and information technologies, and silicon has provided the test-bed for the development of much of semiconductor physics, so it may seem surprising that anything new can be learned about silicon.   Nevertheless, we have spent the past 10+ years investigating the remarkable properties of highly isotopically enriched 28Si, which is a unique new material that has been likened to a “semiconductor vacuum”.  I will describe some of the surprising properties and discoveries that have resulted from the availability of 28Si, with special emphasis on measurements and potential applications in the field of semiconductor-based quantum information.