Strain-Tunable Electron-Phonon Coupling in Silicon Inversion Layers

The phonon environment plays a critical role in condensed matter systems, particularly where quantum coherence is essential. Understanding the interaction between phonons and electrons is therefore crucial for such systems. In this work, we investigate the coupling between the phonon environment and electrons confined to a strained two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in silicon. Our results demonstrate that the power dissipation from electrons to phonons follows a power law of the form ATⁿ⁺², where the coefficient A contains the strength of the electron-phonon interaction. By applying strain to the 2DEG using a piezoelectric actuator, we quantify the variation in electron-phonon coupling as a function of strain, providing a technique by which quantum coherence in other devices may be tuned.