Max Hays, Valla Fatemi, Daniël Bouman, J. Cerrillo, S. Diamond, Kyle Serniak, T. Connolly, Peter Krogstrup, Jesper Nygård, A. Levy Yeyati, Attila Geresdi, Michel Devoret
Superconducting spin qubit To date, the most promising solid-state approaches for developing quantum information-processing systems have been based on the circulating supercurrents of superconducting circuits and manipulating the spin properties of electrons in semiconductor quantum dots. Hays et al. combined the desirable aspects of both approaches, the scalability of the superconducting circuits and the compact footprint of the quantum dots, to design and fabricate a superconducting spin qubit (see the Perspective by Wendin and Shumeiko). This so-called Andreev spin qubit provides the opportunity to develop a new quantum information processing platform. Science , abf0345, this issue p. 430 ; see also abk0929, p. 390
Superconducting spin qubit To date, the most promising solid-state approaches for developing quantum information-processing systems have been based on the circulating supercurrents of superconducting circuits and manipulating the spin properties of electrons in semiconductor quantum dots. Hays et al. combined the desirable aspects of both approaches, the scalability of the superconducting circuits and the compact footprint of the quantum dots, to design and fabricate a superconducting spin qubit (see the Perspective by Wendin and Shumeiko). This so-called Andreev spin qubit provides the opportunity to develop a new quantum information processing platform. Science , abf0345, this issue p. 430 ; see also abk0929, p. 390
Quantum Devices
To date, the most promising solid-state approaches for developing quantum information-processing systems have been based on the circulating supercurrents of superconducting circuits and manipulating the spin properties of electrons in semiconductor quantum dots. Hays et al. combined the desirable aspects of both approaches, the scalability of the superconducting circuits and the compact footprint of the quantum dots, to design and fabricate a superconducting spin qubit (see the Perspective by Wendin and Shumeiko). This so-called Andreev spin qubit provides the opportunity to develop a new quantum information processing platform.
Science , abf0345, this issue p. [430][1]; see also abk0929, p. [390][2]
[1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abf0345
[2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abk0929
Hybrid semiconductor-superconductor qubits have recently emerged as a promising alternative to traditional platforms, combining material advantages with device-level tunability. A defining feature is their gate-tunable Josephson coupling, enabling superconducting qubit architectures with full electric-field control and offering a path toward scalable, low-crosstalk quantum processors. This approach seeks to merge benefits of superconducting and semiconductor qubits, for instance by encoding quantum information in the spin of a quasiparticle occupying an Andreev bound state, thus combining long coherence times with fast, flexible control. Progress has accelerated through bottom-up engineering of Andreev states in coupled quantum dot arrays, leading to architectures such as minimal Kitaev chains hosting Majorana zero modes. In parallel, Hamiltonian-protected designs aim to enhance resilience against local noise and decoherence by exploiting superconducting phase dynamics and discrete charge or flux degrees of freedom. This article reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances in hybrid qubits, providing an overview of physical mechanisms, device implementations, and emerging architectures, with emphasis on their potential for (topologically) protected quantum information processing. While many designs remain at proof-of-concept stage, rapid progress suggests practical demonstrations may soon be achievable.
Spin qubits have emerged as a leading platform for quantum information processing due to their long coherence times, small footprint, and compatibility with the existing semiconductor industry. We first provide an introduction to the different qubit implementations currently being investigated, including single electron-spin qubits, hole-spin qubits, donor qubits, and multispin encodings. We discuss how the confinement and strain present in semiconductor heterostructures produce addressable levels whose spin degree of freedom can be used to encode a qubit. A large emphasis is placed on reviewing the theoretical foundations and recent experimental demonstrations of proposed mechanisms for long-range coupling, including hybrid approaches based on circuit QED and Andreev qubits, as well as spin shuttling. Finally, we review a recent proposal for linking spin qubits using topological spin textures.
We investigate the feasibility of manipulating individual spin in a superconducting junction where Bogoliubov quasiparticles can be trapped in discrete Andreev levels. We call this system an Andreev quantum dot (AQD) to be contrasted with a common semiconductor quantum dot. We show that the AQD can be brought into a spin-1/2 state. The coupling between the spin and superconducting current facilitates manipulation and measurement of this state. We demonstrate that one can operate two inductively coupled AQDs as a XOR gate; this enables quantum computing applications.
Physics
There are several different approaches to quantum information processing currently under development, including (but not exhaustively) superconducting circuits, nitrogen vacancy defects in diamond, and semiconductor quantum dots. Each one relies on the basic building block of a qubit, a two-level quantum system, on which the information can be stored and manipulated. In the semiconductor quantum dot approach, manipulating the spin of a single electron is promising because it has all the requirements: being fast, controllable and stable. A downside, however, has been the issue of scalability. Any useful quantum processor will require a system of many qubits, but getting quantum dots to talk to each other has presented a challenge. Addressing a preliminary point of this issue, Schaibley et al. show that the light (a single photon) emitted from the excited state of a charged quantum dot is entangled with the spin of the electron on the dot. The authors argue that by making the single photons emitted from other distinct quantum dots interact, it may be possible to then entangle the spins on these quantum dots and thus realize a scalable architecture.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 , 167401 (2013).
Superconducting spin qubits, also known as Andreev spin qubits, promise to combine the benefits of superconducting qubits and spin qubits defined in quantum dots. While most approaches to control these qubits rely on controlling the spin degree of freedom via the supercurrent, superconducting spin qubits can also be coupled to each other via the superconductor to implement two-qubit quantum gates. We theoretically investigate the interaction between superconducting spin qubits in the weak tunneling regime and concentrate on the effect of spin-orbit interaction (SOI), which can be large in semiconductor-based quantum dots and thereby offers an additional tuning parameter for quantum gates. We find analytically that the effective interaction between two superconducting spin qubits consists of Ising, Heisenberg, and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and can be tuned by the superconducting phase difference, the tunnel barrier strength, or the SOI parameters. The Josephson current becomes dependent on SOI and spin orientations. We demonstrate that this interaction can be used for fast controlled phase-flip gates with a fidelity >99.99%. We propose a scalable network of superconducting spin qubits which is suitable for implementing the surface code.