Microwave Photon-Mediated Interactions between Semiconductor Qubits

Spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots are an attractive candidate for scalable quantum information processing. Reliable quantum state transfer and entanglement between spatially separated spin qubits is a highly desirable but challenging goal. Here, we propose a fast and high-fidelity quantum state transfer scheme for two spin qubits mediated by virtual microwave photons. Our general strategy involves using a superadiabatic pulse to eliminate non-adiabatic transitions, without the need for increased control complexity. We show that arbitrary quantum state transfer can be achieved with a fidelity of 95.1% within a 60 ns short time under realistic parameter conditions. We also demonstrate the robustness of this scheme to experimental imperfections and environmental noises. Furthermore, this scheme can be directly applied to the generation of a remote Bell entangled state with a fidelity as high as 97.6%. These results pave the way for fault-tolerant quantum computation on spin quantum network architecture platforms.

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<sec>Spin qubits in silicon-based semiconductor quantum dots have become one of the prominent candidates for realizing fault-tolerant quantum computing due to their long coherence time, good controllability, and compatibility with modern advanced integrated circuit manufacturing processes. In recent years, due to the remarkable advances in silicon-based materials, the structure of quantum dot and its fabrication process, and qubit manipulation technology, the great progress of high-fidelity state preparation and readout, single- and two-qubit gates of spin qubits for silicon based semiconductor quantum computation has been achieved. The control fidelities for single- and two-qubit gates all exceed 99%—fault tolerance threshold required by the surface code known for its exceptionally high tolerance to errors. In this paper, we briefly introduce the basic concepts of silicon-based semiconductor quantum dots, discuss the state-of-art technologies used to improve the fidelities of single- and two-qubit gates, and finally highlight the research directions that should be focused on.</sec><sec>This paper is organized as follows. Firstly, we introduce three major types of quantum dot (QD) devices fabricated on different silicon-based substrates, including Si/SiGe heterojunction and Si/SiO<sub>2</sub>. The spin degree of electron or nucleus hosted in QD can be encoded into spin qubits. Electron spin qubits can be thermally initialized to ground state by using an electron reservoirs, and can be read out by spin-charge conversion mechanism: energy-selective readout (Elzerman readout) with reservoirs or Pauli spin blockade (PSB) without reservoirs. Additionally, high fidelity single-shot readout has been demonstrated by using radio-frequency gate reflectometry combined with the PSB, which has unique advantages in large-scale qubit array. To coherently control the spin qubits, electron dipole resonance (ESR) or electron dipole spin resonance (EDSR) for electron and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for nucleus are introduced. With the help of isotope purification greatly improving the dephasing time of qubit and fast single-qubit manipulation based on EDSR, fidelity above 99.9% can be reached. For the two-qubit gates based on exchange interaction between electron spins, the strength of interaction <inline-formula><tex-math id="M1">\begin{document}$ J $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="23-20221900_M1.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="23-20221900_M1.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> combined with Zeeman energy difference <inline-formula><tex-math id="M2">\begin{document}$ \Delta {E}_{z} $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="23-20221900_M2.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="23-20221900_M2.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula> determines the energy levels of system, which lead to the different two-qubit gates, such as controlled-Z (CZ), controlled-Rotation (CROT), and the square root of the SWAP gate (<inline-formula><tex-math id="M3">\begin{document}$ \sqrt{\rm{S}\rm{W}\rm{A}\rm{P}} $\end{document}</tex-math><alternatives><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="23-20221900_M3.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="23-20221900_M3.png"/></alternatives></inline-formula>) gates. In order to improve the fidelity of two-qubit gates, a series of key technologies is used experimentally, they being isotope purification, symmetry operation, careful Hamiltonian engineering, and gate set tomography. Fidelity of two-qubit gates exceeding 99% has been demonstrated for electron spin qubits in Si/SiGe quantum dots and nuclear spin qubits in donors. These advances have pushed the silicon-based spin qubit platform to become a major stepping stone towards fault-tolerant quantum computation. Finally, we discuss the future study of spin qubits, that is, how to effectively expand the number of qubits, and many other problems to be explored and solved.</sec>

Combining external control with long spin lifetime and coherence is a key challenge for solid state spin qubits. Tunnel coupling with electron Fermi reservoir provides robust charge state control in semiconductor quantum dots, but results in undesired relaxation of electron and nuclear spins through mechanisms that lack complete understanding. Here, we unravel the contributions of tunnelling-assisted and phonon-assisted spin relaxation mechanisms by systematically adjusting the tunnelling coupling in a wide range, including the limit of an isolated quantum dot. These experiments reveal fundamental limits and trade-offs of quantum dot spin dynamics: while reduced tunnelling can be used to achieve electron spin qubit lifetimes exceeding 1 s, the optical spin initialisation fidelity is reduced below 80%, limited by Auger recombination. Comprehensive understanding of electron-nuclear spin relaxation attained here provides a roadmap for design of the optimal operating conditions in quantum dot spin qubits.

We develop an architecture for distributed quantum computation using quantum bus of plasmonic circuits and spin qubits in self-assembled quantum dots. Deterministic quantum gates between two distant spin qubits can be reached by using an adiabatic approach in which quantum dots couple with highly detuned plasmon modes in a metallic nanoring. Plasmonic quantum bus offers a robust and scalable platform for quantum optics experiments and the development of on-chip quantum networks composed of various quantum nodes, such as quantum dots, molecules, and nanoparticles.

The control of discrete quantum states in solids and their use for quantum information processing is complicated by the lack of a detailed understanding of the mechanisms responsible for qubit decoherences. For spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots, phenomenological models of decoherence currently recognize two Basic stages; fast ensemble dephasing due to the coherent precession of spin qubits around nearly static but randomly distributed hyperfine fields and a much slower process of irreversible relaxation of spin qubit polarization due to dynamics of the nuclear spin bath induced by complex many-body interaction effects. We unambiguosly demonstrate that such a view on decoherence is greatly oversimplified; the relaxation of a spin qubit state is determined by three rather than two basic stages. The additional stage corresponds to the effect of coherent dephasing processes that occur in the nuclear spin bath that manifests itself by a relatively fast but incomplete non-monotonous relaxation of the central spin polarization at intermediate timescales. This observation changes our understanding of the electron spin qubit decoherence mechanisms in solid state systems.

An optical pumping method for creating charged excitons in semiconductor quantum dots is demonstrated using a two-color excitation method. This method employs two laser sources whose energies are in the resonant and barrier excitation conditions, respectively. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of a single quantum dot clearly vary from exciton-originated PL to charged exciton-originated PL as the excitation conditions are changed. This method is applied to the initialization process of an electron spin qubit without a magnetic field, which provides a simple and effective way of implementing quantum computing with spin qubits.

Spin qubits in germanium gate-defined quantum dots have made considerable progress within the last few years, partially due to their strong spin-orbit coupling and site-dependent g-tensors. While this characteristic of the g-factors removes the need for micromagnets and allows for the possibility of all-electric qubit control, relying on these g-tensors necessitates the need to understand their sensitivity to the confinement potential that defines the quantum dots. Here, we demonstrate a S − T_ qubit whose frequency is a strong function of the voltage applied to the barrier gate shared by the quantum dots. We find a g-factor that can be approximately increased by an order of magnitude adjusting the barrier gate voltage only by 12 mV. We show how this strong dependence could potentially be attributed to the dots moving through a variable strain environment in our device. This work not only reinforces previous findings that site-dependent g-tensors in germanium can be utilized for qubit manipulation, but reveals the sensitivity and tunability these g-tensors have to the electrostatic confinement of the quantum dot.

In the field of semiconductor quantum dot spin qubits, there is growing interest in leveraging the unique properties of hole-carrier systems and their intrinsically strong spin-orbit coupling to engineer novel spin qubits. In contrast to the weak spin-orbit interaction found in Si, strong spin-orbit coupling in Ge may allow purely electrical spin control using the electric field component of a microwave drive signal applied to a confinement gate, without the need for additional components such as microwave stripline antennas or micromagnets. A crucial aspect in the search for alternative semiconductor qubit host materials is the need to maintain the advantages of existing platforms such as Si: low disorder, long coherence times, extensibility, and semiconductor foundry compatibility. Recent advances in semiconductor heterostructure growth have made available high quality, undoped Ge/SiGe quantum wells that can serve as hosts for hole spin qubits. These quantum wells consist of a pure strained Ge layer flanked by Ge-rich SiGe layers above and below, grown by reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition. Isotopic enrichment is possible if required. The heavy hole charge carriers are characterized by a small effective mass m* ~ 0.08m 0 (about 2.4x lighter than for electrons in Si), high mobility μ ≥ 1E5 cm2/Vs, and highly anisotropic g-factors. The small effective mass should allow relatively large and easily-coupled quantum dots. The next-nearest light hole band is theoretically predicted to be on the order of ~ 100 meV below the heavy hole band. The p-orbital character of the hole wavefunction may provide an advantage in minimizing contact hyperfine interactions with nonzero-spin lattice nuclei. There is both theoretical and experimental evidence of a cubic Rashba-type spin-orbit interaction in this material, whose large strength is manifest as a spin-orbit length on the order of 1 micrometer. An additional advantage over Si is that the two-dimensional band structure of Ge quantum wells does not feature valley states, which can present difficulties for qubit operations. Here, we will describe our ongoing efforts to prepare spin qubits in this platform, including development of gated device architectures, device tuning protocols, and charge-sensing capabilities. Initial work focused on single-layer gate layouts, in which lithographically-defined single and double quantum dots were demonstrated at dilution refrigerator temperatures. Charging energies of ~ 1.7 meV were observed. These devices featured a broad and shallow potential landscape, and only a small number of holes could be confined to a quantum dot. Although adjacent quantum dots could be coupled to one another, this coupling was not easily tuned using this gate design. These limitations in the confinement and control of quantum dots motivated the subsequent adoption of multilayer gate-stack architectures, similar to what has been demonstrated in Si. Our three-layer devices feature gate electrodes designed for accumulation of holes, local depletion to form quantum dots, and selective isolation/screening of electric fields. Device structures feature Ti/Pt gates, ALD oxide dielectrics, and implanted ohmic contacts. Symmetrically constructed devices comprise two gated channels for quantum dot confinement, one to be used as the quantum dot under study and the other operated as a local charge sensor. By monitoring the conductance of the charge sensor as the quantum dot is tuned, we can remotely determine the dot’s occupation number, in principle down to the last hole. Iterative cycles of device fabrication and measurement, combined with numerical modeling, have allowed continuous improvements to the device design. Early three-layer device designs suffered from poor isolation between the upper and lower mirror-symmetric device channels. Numerical modeling showed (and measurements have confirmed) that an additional isolation gate could allow improved autonomy of the two channels while maintaining their electrostatic coupling needed for charge sensing. Ongoing, simulation-informed work to fine-tune the device geometry, as well as efforts toward a qubit demonstration, will be discussed. This work was funded, in part, by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program and performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Energy or the United States Government. The work at NTU was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (107-2622-8-002-018-). Figure 1

In the last 20 years, silicon quantum dots have received considerable attention from academic and industrial communities for research on readout, manipulation, storage, near-neighbor and long-range coupling of spin qubits. In this paper, we introduce how to realize a single spin qubit from Si-MOS quantum dots. First, we introduce the structure of a typical Si-MOS quantum dot and the experimental setup. Then, we show the basic properties of the quantum dot, including charge stability diagram, orbital state, valley state, lever arm, electron temperature, tunneling rate and spin lifetime. After that, we introduce the two most commonly used methods for spin-to-charge conversion, i.e., Elzerman readout and Pauli spin blockade readout. Finally, we discuss the details of how to find the resonance frequency of spin qubits and show the result of coherent manipulation, i.e., Rabi oscillation. The above processes constitute an operation guide for helping the followers enter the field of spin qubits in Si-MOS quantum dots.

Reliable information transmission between spatially separated nodes is fundamental to a network architecture for scalable quantum technology. Spin qubit in semiconductor quantum dots is a promising candidate for quantum information processing. However, there remains a challenge to design a practical path from the existing experiments to scalable quantum processor. Here we propose a module consisting of spin singlet-triplet qubits and single microwave photons. We show a high degree of control over interactions between the spin qubit and the quantum light field can be achieved. Furthermore, we propose preparation of a shaped single photons with an efficiency of 98%, and deterministic quantum state transfer and entanglement generation between remote nodes with a high fidelity of 90%. This spin-photon module has met the threshold of particular designed error-correction protocols, thus provides a feasible approach towards scalable quantum network architecture.

A comparison of gate fidelities between different spin qubit types defined in quantum dots and a donor under different control errors is reported. We studied five qubit types, namely the quantum dot spin qubit, the double quantum dot singlet-triplet qubit, the double quantum dot hybrid qubit, the donor qubit and the quantum dot spin-donor qubit. For each one, we derived analytical time sequences that realize single qubit rotations along the principal axis of the Bloch sphere. We estimated the effects of control errors on the gate fidelity by using a Gaussian noise model. Then we compared the gate fidelities among qubit implementations due to pulse timing errors by using a realistic set of values for the error parameters of control amplitudes.

We present an overview of experimental steps taken towards using the spin of a single electron trapped in a semiconductor quantum dot as a spin qubit [Loss and DiVincenzo, Phys. Rev. A 57, 120 (1998)]. Fabrication and characterization of a double quantum dot containing two coupled spins has been achieved, as well as initialization and single‐shot read‐out of the spin state. The relaxation time T 1 of single‐spin and two‐spin states was found to be on the order of a millisecond, dominated by spin–orbit interactions. The time‐averaged dephasing time T 2*, due to fluctuations in the ensemble of nuclear spins in the host semiconductor, was determined to be on the order of several tens of nanosceconds. Coherent manipulation of single‐spin states can be performed using a microfabricated wire located close to the quantum dot, while two‐spin interactions rely on controlling the tunnel barrier connecting the respective quantum dots [Petta et al., Science 309, 2180 (2005)]. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The hybrid system of electron spins and resonator photons is an attractive architecture for quantum computing owing to the long coherence times of spins and the promise of long-distance coupling between arbitrary pairs of qubits via photons. For the device to serve as a building block for a quantum processer, it is also necessary to readout the spin qubit state. Here we analyze in detail the measurement process of an electron spin singlet-triplet qubit in quantum dots using a coupled superconducting resonator. We show that the states of the spin singlet-triplet qubit lead to readily observable features in the spectrum of a microwave field through the resonator. These features provide useful information on the hybrid system. Moreover, we discuss the working points which can be implemented with high performance in the current state-of-the-art devices. These results can be used to construct the high fidelity measurement toolbox in the spin-circuit QED system.

Nuclear spins are an important source of dephasing for electron spin qubits in GaAs quantum dots. Most studies of their dynamics have focused on the relatively slow longitudinal polarization. We show, based on a semiclassical model and experimentally, that the dynamics of the transverse hyperfine field can be probed by correlating individual Landau-Zener sweeps across the S-T$_+$ transition of a two-electron spin qubit. The relative Larmor precession of different nuclear spin species leads to oscillations in these correlations, whose decay arises from dephasing of the nuclei. In the presence of spin orbit coupling, oscillations with the absolute Larmor frequencies whose amplitude reflects the spin orbit coupling strength are expected.