Single electrons on solid neon as a solid-state qubit platform.

Entanglement between a photon and a stationary particle is a key resource for quantum communication. The effect has now been observed for a photon and a single electron spin in a semiconductor nanostructure. See Letters p.421 & p.426 Future quantum networks will combine ideally stationary quantum bits (qubits), such as single electron spins, with 'flying' qubits, which are photons that transfer quantum states between distant qubits. It has therefore been a long-standing challenge in the field of quantum computation and communication to couple a single electron spin to a single photon in a solid-state platform. Two groups working independently have now achieved that goal, by demonstrating entanglement between a photon and a single electron spin trapped in a semiconductor 'quantum dot' structure. The quantum dot acts as the stationary node. This achievement is a small step towards eventual implementation of quantum networks that can support long-distance quantum communication.

In this paper we propose an implementation technique for sequential circuit using single electron tunneling technology (SET-s) with the example of designing of a “coffee vending machine” with the goal of getting low power and faster operation. We implement the proposed design based on single electron encoded logic (SEEL).The circuit is tested and compared with the existing CMOS technology.

For some cavity-quantum-electrodynamics systems, such as a single electron spin coupled to a passive cavity, it is challenging to reach the strong-coupling regime. In such a weak-coupling regime, the conventional dispersive readout technique cannot be used to resolve the quantum states of the spin. Here we propose an improved dispersive readout method to measure the quantum states of a weakly coupled qubit by harnessing either one or two auxiliary cavities linearly coupled to the passive cavity containing the qubit. With appropriate parameters in both cases, the system excluding the qubit can exhibit a parity-time-symmetric phase transition at the exceptional point (EP). Because the EP can amplify the perturbation induced by the qubit and the parity-time symmetry can narrow the linewidths of the peaks in the transmission spectrum of the passive cavity, we can measure the quantum states of the weakly coupled qubit via this transmission spectrum. Owing to the weak coupling between the qubit and the passive cavity, the backaction due to the measurement of the qubit can also be reduced in comparison with the conventional dispersive readout technique in the strong-coupling regime.

The N ion was produced in neon plasma and isolated in solid neon at 4 K. Its X-band electron-spin-resonance (ESR) spectrum was analyzed to yield the isotropic hyperfine interaction of 441 MHz with the 23Na (I = 3/2) nucleus. An approximate interpretation of this value points to considerable pσ character in the predominantly sσ wave function of the single valence electron in the ground 2 state.

We have observed trapping of electrons in an electrostatic trap formed over the surface of liquid helium-4. These electrons are detected by a Single Electron Transistor located at the centre of the trap. We can trap any desired number of electrons between 1 and $\sim 30$. By repeatedly ($\sim 10^3-10^4$ times) putting a single electron into the trap and lowering the electrostatic barrier of the trap, we can measure the effective temperature of the electron and the time of its thermalisation after heating up by incoherent radiation.

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.

The scheme of directly controlling electron spins trapped in semiconductor quantum dots or donor impurities as qubits using optical pulses has various advantages, such as the achievements of local excitation and fast operation, low power consumption, easy implementation of an interface with optical fiber communication networks, and the capability of transferring information to nuclear spins, which are expected to serve as quantum memories with a long coherence time. In this report, I introduce the present status of the research and development of this scheme and discuss its potential application to quantum information processing.

Manipulation of carrier densities at the single electron level is inevitable in modern silicon based transistors to ensure reliable circuit operation with sufficiently low threshold-voltage variations. However, previous methods required statistical analysis to identify devices which exhibit random telegraph signals (RTSs), caused by trapping and de-trapping of a single electron. Here, we show that we can deliberately introduce an RTS in a silicon nanowire transistor, with its probability distribution perfectly controlled by a triple gate. A quantum dot (QD) was electrically defined in a silicon nanowire transistor with a triple gate, and an RTS was observed when two barrier gates were negatively biased to form potential barriers, while the entire nanowire channel was weakly inverted by the top gate. We could successfully derive the energy levels in the QD from the quantum mechanical probability distributions and the average lifetimes of RTSs. This study reveals that we can manipulate individual electrons electrically, even at room temperature, and paves the way to use a charged state for quantum technologies in the future.

The physics realization of a ququadrit quantum computation with cooled trapped 138Ba+ ions in a Paul trap is investigated. The ground state level 62S1/2(m = −1/2) and three metastable levels: 52D3/2(m = −1/2), 52D5/2(m = −1/2), and 52D5/2(m = 1/2), of the fine-structure of the 138Ba+ ion, are used to store the quantum information of ququadrits. The use of coherent manipulation of populations in single ququadrit, being a four-dimensional Hilbert space, produces a discrete Fourier transform and the manipulation of the first red band transitions with the introduction of an ancillary quantum channel between two ququadrits generates a conditional phase gate. The combination of the both above results in a universal two-ququadrit gate, called XOR(4) gate corresponding to the controlled-NOT gate operation in qubit systems. The implementation of quantum Fourier transform for n ququadrits is performed by means of the conditional phase-shift gate. The feasibility of physical realization of ququadrit quantum computation with cooled-trapped 138Ba+ ions is detailed analyzed and described, and the theoretical detection method of logical states is given. Higher entanglement between ququadrits than qutrits or qubits and more security of ququadrit quantum cryptography than qutrit's or qutrit's will lead to more extensive applications ququadrits in quantum information fields. In particular, it is pointed out that this scheme should be the highest dimensional quantum computation in cooled-trapped ions, the entanglement between ququadrits should be the highest dimensional entanglement in it, and the ququadrit quantum cryptography should be the most secure cryptography protocol in it.

Electron spins in semiconductor nanostructures are considered as one of the most promising candidates of the building blocks for quantum information processing. Initialization, coherent manipulation, and measurement of a single electron spin have been recently established. Here we explore the possibility to manipulate and measure by optical means the states of two electrons as a single qubit in nanostructures and propose methods of spin-state tomography based on Faraday or Kerr rotation for cases of both a single electron and two electrons, as well as a method of the Bell-state measurement for two electrons.

We study effects of strong electron-electron and electron-phonon correlations in single electron traps in metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (FETs). In order to explain the strong suppression of single electron tunneling in the trap, we introduce a model in which the excess charge of the trap couples to a local lattice deformation. By using nonperturbative techniques, we derive an effective low-energy action for the system. The behavior of the system is characterized by simultaneous polaron tunneling (corresponding to the charging and discharging of the trap) and Kondo screening of the trap spin in the singly occupied state. Hence, the obtained state of the system is a hybrid between the Kondo regime, typically associated with single electron occupancy, and the mixed valence regime, associated with large charge fluctuations. In the presence of a strong magnetic field, we demonstrate that the system is equivalent to a two-level system coupled to an Ohmic bath, with a bias controlled by the applied magnetic field. Due to the Kondo screening, the effect of the magnetic field is significantly suppressed in the singly occupied state. We claim that this suppression can be responsible for the experimentally observed anomalous magnetic field dependence of the average trap occupancy in Si-Si0/sub 2/ FETs.

Entanglement is a central concept in quantum information and a key resource\nfor many quantum protocols. In this work we propose and analyze a class of\nentanglement witnesses that detect the presence of entanglement in subsystems\nof experimental multi-qubit stabilizer states. The witnesses we propose can be\ndecomposed into sums of Pauli operators and can be efficiently evaluated by\neither two measurement settings only or at most a number of measurements that\nonly depends on the size of the subsystem of interest. We provide two\nconstructive methods to design the local witness operators, the first one based\non the local unitary equivalence between graph and stabilizer states, and the\nsecond one based on sufficient and necessary conditions that the respective set\nof constituent Pauli operators needs to fulfill. We theoretically establish the\nnoise tolerance of the proposed witnesses and benchmark their practical\nperformance by analyzing the local entanglement structure of an experimental\nseven-qubit quantum error correction code.\n

Microwave phononics is a promising platform for sensing, computing, and quantum information science; thus, sensitive and high-throughput characterization tools are needed not only for device verification and optimization but also for revealing transient and nonlinear dynamics. Existing interferometric optical vibrometers for 2D mapping are challenged by operating point stabilization, surface reflectivity contrast, and long acquisition time. Here, we use spectral interferometry, which is insensitive to these factors and utilizes a continuous raster scanning scheme for vibration mapping with high throughput. We intensity-modulate our broadband light source with an electro-optic modulator to resolve vibrations at microwave frequencies. Our system requires no fast photodetector or digitizer operating in the microwave frequency range. We image the 1 GHz vibration field of a 300×150µm2 area of an entire surface acoustic wave device in 10 min with simultaneous surface profilometry. Our system has a vibration sensitivity of 120 fm/sqrt(Hz) and a linear throughput of 0.77 mm/s on the chip surface. The technique offers capabilities for characterizing a wide range of acoustic wave and micromechanical devices to better understand their behavior and performance.

The two or more degrees of freedoms (DOFs) of photon systems are very useful in hyperparallel photonic quantum computing to accomplish more quantum logic gate operations with less resource, and depress photonic dissipation noise in quantum information processing. We present some flexible and adjustable schemes for hybrid hyper-controlled-not (hyper-CNOT) gates assisted by low-Q cavities, on the two-photon systems in both the spatial-mode and the polarization DOFs. These hybrid spatial-polarization hyper-CNOT gates consume less quantum resource and are more robust against photonic dissipation noise, compared with the integration of two cascaded CNOT gates in one DOF. Besides, simultaneous counter-propagation of two photons economize extremely the operation time in the whole process of our schemes. Moreover, these quantum logic gates are more feasible for fast quantum operations in the weak-coupling region of the low-Q cavities with current experimental technology, which are much different from strong-coupling cases of the high-Q ones.

Interfacing single photons and electrons is a crucial ingredient for sharing quantum information between remote solid-state qubits. Semiconductor nanowires offer the unique possibility to combine optical quantum dots with avalanche photodiodes, thus enabling the conversion of an incoming single photon into a macroscopic current for efficient electrical detection. Currently, millions of excitation events are required to perform electrical read-out of an exciton qubit state. Here we demonstrate multiplication of carriers from only a single exciton generated in a quantum dot after tunneling into a nanowire avalanche photodiode. Due to the large amplification of both electrons and holes (> 10^4), we reduce by four orders of magnitude the number of excitation events required to electrically detect a single exciton generated in a quantum dot. This work represents a significant step towards single-shot electrical read-out and offers a new functionality for on-chip quantum information circuits.