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arXiv:2306.16211 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Exchange interaction between two quantum dots coupled through a superconducting island

Ádám Bácsi, Luka Pavešič, Rok Žitko

Published Sep 27, 2023• 9 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of a system consisting of a superconducting island and two quantum dots, a possible platform for building qubits and Cooper pair splitters, in the regime where each dot hosts a single electron and, hence, carries a magnetic moment. We focus on the case where the dots are coupled to overlapping superconductor states and we study whether the spins are ferromagnetically or antiferromagnetically aligned. We show that if the total number of particles is even the spins align antiferromagnetically in the flatband limit, i.e., when the bandwidth of the superconductor is negligibly small, but they align ferromagnetically if the bandwidth is finite and above some value. If the total number of particles is odd, the alignment is ferromagnetic independently from the bandwidth. This implies that the results of the flatband limit are applicable only within a restricted parameter regime for realistic superconducting qubit systems and that some care is required in applying simplified models to devices such as Cooper pair splitters.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.108.115160

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Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja•Jan 1, 2020•0 citations
We present a theoretical study of a system consisting of a superconducting island and two quantum dots, a possible platform for building qubits and Cooper pair splitters, in the regime where each dot hosts a single electron and, hence, carries a magnetic moment. We focus on the case where the dots are coupled to overlapping superconductor states and we study whether the spins are ferromagnetically or antiferromagnetically aligned. We show that if the total number of particles is even the spins align antiferromagnetically in the flatband limit, i.e., when the bandwidth of the superconductor is negligibly small, but they align ferromagnetically if the bandwidth is finite and above some value. If the total number of particles is odd, the alignment is ferromagnetic independently from the bandwidth. This implies that the results of the flatband limit are applicable only within a restricted parameter regime for realistic superconducting qubit systems and that some care is required in applying simplified models to devices such as Cooper pair splitters.
Controlled coupling between distant particles is a key requirement for the implementation of quantum information technologies. A promising platform are hybrid systems of semiconducting quantum dots coupled to superconducting islands, where the tunability of the dots is combined with the macroscopic coherence of the islands to produce states with non-local correlations, e.g. in Cooper pair splitters. Electrons in hybrid quantum dots are typically not amenable to long-distance spin alignment as they tend to be screened into a localized singlet state by bound superconducting quasiparticles. However, two quasiparticles coming from different superconductors can overscreen the quantum dot into a doublet state, leading to ferromagnetic correlations between the superconducting islands. We present experimental evidence of a stabilized overscreened state, implying correlated quasiparticles over a micrometer distance. We propose alternating chains of quantum dots and superconducting islands as a novel platform for controllable large-scale spin coupling.
Condensed matter is composed of a small set of identical units, yet it shows an immense range of behaviour. Recently, an array of cold atoms was used to generate long-range quantum entanglement, a property of topological matter. Another approach to strong non-local correlations employs the macroscopic coherence of superconductors. Impurity spins in superconductors are thought to be unamenable to the formation of long-range spin entanglement because each spin tends to be screened by binding to a quasiparticle from the superconductor to form a local singlet. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to attach a second quasiparticle to the spin, overscreening it into a doublet state carrying ferromagnetic correlations between two quasiparticles over a micrometer distance. To demonstrate this effect, which is strongest for equal binding, we symmetrically couple the spin of a quantum dot to two ultrasmall superconducting islands. The overscreened state requires sufficiently large Coulomb repulsion and exchange binding to become well defined. We predict that this state will carry long-range correlations for an alternating chain of quantum dots and superconducting islands, opening a new route to controllable large-scale entanglement in the solid state.
We present a model of two Anderson impurities coupled to and through a superconducting island. The model parametrizes the strength of the coupling between impurity sites, allowing it to represent a variable distance between the impurities. We systematically explore the effect of the model parameters in the subspaces with total even and odd occupancy, identifying unique features of the charge stability diagrams that distinguish the two parities. For total odd electron parity, we identify a device tuning, in which the splitting between the two lowest energy states is highly insensitive to changes of the chemical potentials. We investigate the degree to which a qubit based on such two states is tunable and discuss an optimal choice of parameters to maximize inhomogeneous dephasing time. Finally, we point out that the proposed qubit lacks a transition dipole moment, and outline some of the consequences on viable driving and readout mechanisms. The prototype qubits could be realized with the existing capabilities of coupling quantum dots to hard-gapped superconductors.
A Cooper pair splitter consists of two quantum dots side-coupled to a conventional superconductor. Usually, the quantum dots are assumed to have a large charging energy compared to the superconducting gap, in order to suppress processes other than the coherent splitting of Cooper pairs. In this work, in contrast, we investigate the limit in which the charging energy is smaller than the superconducting gap. This allows us, in particular, to study the effect of a Zeeman field comparable to the charging energy. We find analytically that in this parameter regime the superconductor mediates an interdot tunneling term with a spin symmetry determined by the Zeeman field. Together with electrostatically tunable quantum dots, we show that this makes it possible to engineer a spin triplet state shared between the quantum dots. Compared to previous works, we thus extend the capabilities of the Cooper pair splitter to create entangled nonlocal electron pairs.
Entangling two quantum bits by letting them interact is the crucial requirement for building a quantum processor. For qubits based on the spin of the electron, these two qubit gates are typically performed by exchange interaction of the electrons captured in two nearby quantum dots. Since the exchange interaction relies on tunneling of the electrons, the range of interaction for conventional approaches is severely limited as the tunneling amplitude decays exponentially with the length of the tunneling barrier. Here, we present an approach to couple two spin qubits via a superconducting coupler. In essence, the superconducting coupler provides a tunneling barrier for the electrons which can be tuned with exquisite precision. We show that as a result exchange couplings over a distance of several microns become realistic, thus enabling flexible designs of multiqubit systems.
Entanglement is a valuable resource for quantum computing and information technologies. A promising way to obtain spin-entangled electrons is the splitting of Cooper pairs residing in superconductors. This is realized by a nanodevice called Cooper pair splitter. A Cooper pair splitter is realized by tunnel-coupling a superconductor to two quantum dots, which are each further tunnelcoupled to separate terminal leads. This setup enables the extraction and splitting of Cooper pairs from the superconductor into the terminals via the quantum dots. The quantum dots are commonly fabricated from semiconducting materials like InAs and InSb, that can manifest spin-orbit interaction. This thesis studies the effect of spin-orbit interaction on the spin state of the electron pair in the Cooper pair splitter. Activating the spin-orbit effects in a Cooper pair splitter requires a static magnetic field to be applied to the quantum dots. Together with the gate electrodes controlling the electrostatic energy of the quantum dots, the external magnetic field provides a handle for addressing different two-particle spin states. The spin-orbit interaction can be activated by various combinations of the gate voltage and Zeeman magnetic field, that create resonances between different states of the system. The most interesting coherent evolution, that can be invoked in this way, involves the simultaneous activation of the two spin-polarized triplet states. This gives a rise to an entangled Bell state, (|↑↑>+|↓↓>) / √2, that moreover exhibits spin blockade and thus stabilizes entanglement in the Cooper pair splitter. Secondly, the spin-orbit interaction can be used to bypass suppressed Cooper pair tunneling at a high superconductor-quantum dots detuning. Introducing a large Zeeman magnetic field allows Cooper pairs to tunnel in to the dots given that their spin state flips to the triplet |↓↓>. Although this regime lacks spin-entanglement, it is of interest for creating triplet Cooper pairs and spin-polarized superconducting currents.