We demonstrate that a lightly strained germanium channel (ϵ / / = - 0.41 %) in an undoped Ge/Si0.1Ge0.9 heterostructure field effect transistor supports a two-dimensional (2D) hole gas with mobility in excess of 1 × 10 6 cm2/Vs and percolation density less than 5 × 10 10 cm-2. This low disorder 2D hole system shows tunable fractional quantum Hall effects at low densities and low magnetic fields. The low-disorder and small effective mass (0.068 m e) defines lightly strained germanium as a basis to tune the strength of the spin-orbit coupling for fast and coherent quantum hardware.

Single holes confined in semiconductor quantum dots are a promising platform for spin-qubit technology, due to the electrical tunability of the g factor of holes. However, the underlying mechanisms that enable electric spin control remain unclear due to the complexity of hole-spin states. Here, we study the underlying hole-spin physics of the first hole in a silicon planar metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) quantum dot. We show that nonuniform electrode-induced strain produces nanometer-scale variations in the heavy-hole–light-hole (HH-LH) splitting. Importantly, we find that this nonuniform strain causes the HH-LH splitting to vary by up to 50% across the active region of the quantum dot. We show that local electric fields can be used to displace the hole relative to the nonuniform strain profile, allowing a mechanism for electric modulation of the hole g tensor. Using this mechanism, we demonstrate tuning of the hole g factor by up to 500%. In addition, we observe a potential sweet spot where dg(11¯0)/dV=0, offering a configuration to suppress spin decoherence caused by electrical noise. These results open a path towards a technology involving engineering of nonuniform strains to optimize spin-based devices.