Quantum information processing in semiconductor quantum dots using single and multi-spin qubitsThe idea of a quantum computer, a device capable of processing information using quantum bits (qubit) instead of classical bits that outperforms classical computer in terms of computation speed, is still science ction. However, recent advances in quantum information processing showed that this ction may come true faster than anticipated. A promising platform for the physical realization of a qubit are spin qubits where the information is encoded in the quantum mechanical spin of an electron con ned in a semiconductor quantum dot. There are a variety of di erent implementations how the logical qubit is physically encoded, the use of a single electron spin or the use of the spins of multi electrons. This thesis focuses on the implementation of the spin- 1/2 qubit using the spin of a single electron in a single quantum dot, the exchangeonly (EO) qubit using three electron spins distributed in three quantum dots, and the novel quadrupolar exchange-only (QUEX) qubit using four electron spins distributed in three quantum dots. In this thesis we investigate several theoretical aspects of the physical implementation of the aforementioned qubit encodings. Since all three qubit encodings are allelectric controlled these implementations su er decoherence, the loss of information, from electric uctuations of the environment commonly called charge noise. Typically, the use of more quantum dots increases the decoherence due to charge noise while it decreases the decoherence due to magnetic noise. The rst main aspect investigated in this thesis is the protection of the quantum information encoded in the di erent qubit implementations against charge noise. Special attention is paid to the multi-electron spin implementations where high-symmetry points of operation are discovered which are less sensitive to the charge noise. Protection against charge noise is even better by increasing the number of electrons while keeping the number of quantum dots making the QUEX qubit superior to the EO qubit. So far the main direction in this thesis is the reduction of the qubit sensitivity to electric uctuations. However, coherent electromagnetic elds in form of microwaves v can be used to interconnect qubits. In this thesis also a high-performance coupling between two spin-1/2 is investigated. The use of a resonator, subsequently, allows for a coupling of qubits over macroscopic distances as well as to extract valuable information about the physical system. Because of the larger susceptibility of multi-spin qubits to the electric eld of the resonator, this thesis focuses on the coupling between an EO or a QUEX qubit and a microwave resonator. Points of operations are discovered for both qubit implementations which o er a strong coupling towards a microwave resonator while maintaining their protection against charge noise. Subsequently, a series of measurements are proposed to extract information about the microscopic structure of the quantum dots. Finally, a promising high-performance protocol for coupling two qubits remotely via the resonator is investigated in detail.
The resonant exchange (RX) qubit is a promising variant of the exchange-only spin qubit in a triple quantum dot which responds to a narrow-band resonant frequency. But the advantage of a permanently applied exchange splitting for spin control generally entails an increased susceptibility to charge noise. We have investigated the influence of electrical charge noise on a resonant exchange (RX) qubit by taking into account uncorrelated noise in each quantum dot, giving rise to two independent noisy bias parameters e and ∆ [1]. Calculating the energy splitting of the two qubit states as a function of these two bias detuning parameters, we have identified sweet spots, where the qubit is least susceptible to noise. Our investigation shows that the sweet spots exist within the low-bias regime, in which the bias detuning parameters have the same magnitude as the hopping parameters between the dots. By calculating and comparing the charge dephasing rates at the various operating points of the RX qubit, we identify a new favorable operating regime for the RX qubit in the case of weak noise, based on these double sweet spots. In contrast, spin noise can be mitigated using exchange-based dynamical decoupling sequences that have been optimized using two different strategies, Uhrig dynamical decoupling (UDD) and optimized filter function dynamical decoupling (OFDD) [2]. Finally, we give a brief outlook towards the possibility of long-distance coupling between resonant exchange qubits mediated by a microwave cavity [3]. [1] M. Russ and G. Burkard, Phys. Rev. B 91, 235411 (2015). [2] N. Rohling and G. Burkard, arXiv:1510.04098. [3] M. Russ and G. Burkard, Phys. Rev. B (accepted) [arXiv:1508.07122].
In the semiconductor double quantum dot singlet-triplet qubit architecture, the decoherence caused by the qubit's charge environment poses a serious obstacle towards large scale quantum computing. The effects of the charge decoherence can be mitigated by operating the qubit in the so-called sweet spot regions where it is insensitive to electrical noise. In this paper, we propose singlet-triplet qubits based on two quantum dots of different sizes. Such asymmetric double quantum dot systems allow the implementation of exchange gates with controllable exchange splitting
J operated in the doubly occupied charge region of the larger dot, where the qubit has high resilience to charge noise. In the larger dot,
J can be quenched to a value smaller than the intradot tunneling using magnetic fields, while the smaller dot and its larger splitting can be used in the projective readout of the qubit.
We investigate the behavior of qubits consisting of three electron spins in double and triple quantum dots subject to external electric fields. Our model includes two independent bias parameters, $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$ and ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{M}$, which both couple to external electromagnetic fields and can be controlled by gate voltages applied to the quantum dot structures. By varying these parameters, one can switch the qubit type by shifting the energies in the single quantum dots, thus changing the electron occupancy in each dot. Starting from the asymmetric resonant exchange qubit with a (2,0,1) and (1,0,2) charge admixture, one can smoothly cross over to the resonant exchange qubit with a detuned (1,1,1) charge configuration, and to the exchange-only qubit with the same charge configuration but equal energy levels down to the hybrid qubits with (1,2,0) and (0,2,1) charge configurations. Here,
(l,m,n) describes a configuration with
l electrons in the left dot,
m electrons in the center dot, and
n electrons in the right dot. We first focus on random electromagnetic field fluctuations, i.e., ``charge noise,'' at each quantum dot resulting in dephasing of the qubit, and we provide a complete map of the resulting dephasing time as a function of the bias parameters. We pay special attention to the so-called sweet spots and double sweet spots of the system, which are least susceptible to noise. In the second part, we investigate the coupling of the qubit system to the coherent quantized electromagnetic field in a superconducting strip-line cavity, and we also provide a complete map of the coupling strength as a function of the bias parameters. We analyze the asymmetric qubit-cavity coupling via $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$ and the symmetric coupling via ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{M}$.
Quantum computing promises significant speed-up for certain types of computational problems. However, robust implementations of semiconducting qubits must overcome the effects of charge noise that currently limit coherence during gate operations. Here we describe a scheme for protecting solid-state qubits from uniform electric field fluctuations by generalizing the concept of a decoherence-free subspace for spins, and we propose a specific physical implementation: a quadrupole charge qubit formed in a triple quantum dot. The unique design of the quadrupole qubit enables a particularly simple pulse sequence for suppressing the effects of noise during gate operations. Simulations yield gate fidelities 10-1,000 times better than traditional charge qubits, depending on the magnitude of the environmental noise. Our results suggest that any qubit scheme employing Coulomb interactions (for example, encoded spin qubits or two-qubit gates) could benefit from such a quadrupolar design.
The use of noise-robust qubit encodings provides a way of extending the lifetime of quantum information at the hardware level. In this work, we introduce the spin Kerr-cat encoding, which leverages a sweet spot near a clock transition in the spectrum of quadrupolar nuclei (having spin
I≥1) to achieve a suppression of charge and magnetic noise leading to qubit dephasing. The basis states of the spin Kerr-cat qubit are given by the two lowest levels of a
Z2-symmetric nuclear-spin Hamiltonian and are well approximated by spin cat states for sufficiently high asymmetry parameters. For nuclei in highly asymmetric electric-field gradients, the nuclear spin could therefore be initialized in the spin-Kerr-cat subspace using SU(2) rotations and measurement rather than full SU(
2I+1) control. We calculate the dephasing time of the spin Kerr-cat qubit under a model of
1/f noise, as well as relaxation of the qubit due to breaking of the
Z2 symmetry by charge-noise-induced fluctuations of the quadrupolar tensor. Using measured parameters for antimony (
123Sb) donors in silicon, we estimate that second-scale
T2∗ times could be achieved with this encoding, with bitflips and leakage occurring on significantly longer timescales. We propose a two-qubit gate acting on spin Kerr-cat qubits and electron-spin qubits, enabled by adiabatically moving an electron on and off the donor potential. Based on numerical simulations, we estimate that with an enhancement of measured quadrupolar couplings by a factor of
≈2, a gate fidelity exceeding
99% could be achieved for spin Kerr cats encoded in
123Sb, with a gate time under
100 ns. By entangling the nuclear spin with an electron spin in this way, the spin Kerr-cat qubit could then be measured using a Pauli spin blockade readout of the electron.