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Quantum computing with quantum dots using the Heisenberg exchange interaction

Nicholas Dewaele

Published Jan 1, 2014• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

One of the most promising systems for creating a working quantum computer is the triple quantum dots in a linear semiconductor. One of the biggest advantages is that we are able to perform Heisenberg exchange gates on the physical qubits. These exchanges are both fast and relatively low energy. Which means that they would be excellent for producing fast and accurate operations. In order to prevent leakage errors we use a 3 qubit DFS to encode a logical qubit. Here we determine the theoretical time dependent affects of applying the Heisenberg exchange gates in the DFS basis as well as the effect of applying multiple exchange gates at the same time. we also find that applying two heisenberg exchange gates at the same time is an effective way of implementing a leakage elimination operator.

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Since the mid-20th century it has been understood that a general-purpose quan- tum computer would be able to efficiently solve problems that will forever be out-of-reach for conventional computers. Since then, many quantum algorithms have been developed with applications in a wide range of domains including cryptography, simulations, machine learning and data analysis. While this has resulted in substantial attention being paid to the development of quantum com- puters, the best architectures to use in their fabrication is not yet clear. Semiconductor quantum dot devices are a particularly promising candidate for use in quantum computing architectures, as it is anticipated that once the funda- mental building blocks are implemented, they might be massively scalable using the existing lithography techniques of the semiconductor industry. So far, how- ever, it is not yet clear how best to implement the high-fidelity gates required for general-purpose quantum computation. In this thesis, we present and characterise novel theoretical proposals for fast, simple and high-fidelity two-qubit gates using magnetic (exchange) coupling for specific semiconductor quantum dot qubits; namely, the singlet-triplet and resonant-exchange qubits. These two-qubit operations are simple enough that it is feasible for them to be implemented in experiments of the near future. Success- ful implementations would significantly extend the experimentally demonstrable frontier of semi-conductor quantum dot devices as relevant to their use in uni- versal quantum computing architectures. We also develop simple parameter estimation schemes by which it is possible to substantially mitigate the dominant sources of error for our proposed gates; namely, low-frequency charge and magnetic noise. We develop the techniques in the context of pseudo-static magnetic field gradient fluctuations in singlet- triplet qubits, and demonstrate that these techniques lead to a several orders of magnitude improvement in single-qubit coherence times. With minimal effort this could be ported to other qubit architectures.

•Aug 11, 2015•0 citations

Fast Quantum Gates for Exchange-Only Qubits Using Simultaneous Exchange Pulses

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•Jan 1, 2015•0 citations

Scheme for Quantum Computing Immune to Decoherence

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arXiv:1711.03761•Journal of Physics Condensed Matter•Apr 16, 2018•5 citations
One of the most promising systems for creating a working quantum computer is the triple quantum dots in a linear semiconductor. One of the biggest advantages is that we are able to perform Heisenberg exchange gates on the physical qubits. These exchanges are both fast and relatively low energy. Which means that they would be excellent for producing fast and accurate operations. In order to prevent leakage errors we use a 3 qubit DFS to encode a logical qubit. Here we determine the theoretical time dependent affects of applying the Heisenberg exchange gates in the DFS basis as well as the effect of applying multiple exchange gates at the same time. we also find that applying two heisenberg exchange gates at the same time is an effective way of implementing a leakage elimination operator.
Since the mid-20th century it has been understood that a general-purpose quan- tum computer would be able to efficiently solve problems that will forever be out-of-reach for conventional computers. Since then, many quantum algorithms have been developed with applications in a wide range of domains including cryptography, simulations, machine learning and data analysis. While this has resulted in substantial attention being paid to the development of quantum com- puters, the best architectures to use in their fabrication is not yet clear. Semiconductor quantum dot devices are a particularly promising candidate for use in quantum computing architectures, as it is anticipated that once the funda- mental building blocks are implemented, they might be massively scalable using the existing lithography techniques of the semiconductor industry. So far, how- ever, it is not yet clear how best to implement the high-fidelity gates required for general-purpose quantum computation. In this thesis, we present and characterise novel theoretical proposals for fast, simple and high-fidelity two-qubit gates using magnetic (exchange) coupling for specific semiconductor quantum dot qubits; namely, the singlet-triplet and resonant-exchange qubits. These two-qubit operations are simple enough that it is feasible for them to be implemented in experiments of the near future. Success- ful implementations would significantly extend the experimentally demonstrable frontier of semi-conductor quantum dot devices as relevant to their use in uni- versal quantum computing architectures. We also develop simple parameter estimation schemes by which it is possible to substantially mitigate the dominant sources of error for our proposed gates; namely, low-frequency charge and magnetic noise. We develop the techniques in the context of pseudo-static magnetic field gradient fluctuations in singlet- triplet qubits, and demonstrate that these techniques lead to a several orders of magnitude improvement in single-qubit coherence times. With minimal effort this could be ported to other qubit architectures.
The benefit of exchange-only qubits compared to other spin-qubit types is the universal control using only voltage-controlled exchange interactions between neighboring spins. As a compromise, qubit operations have to be constructed from nonorthogonal rotation axes of the Bloch sphere and result in rather long pulsing sequences. This paper aims to develop a faster implementation of single-qubit gates using simultaneous exchange pulses and manifests their potential for the construction of two-qubit gates. We introduce pulse sequences in which single-qubit gates could be executed faster and show that subsequences on three spins in two-qubit gates could be implemented in fewer steps. Our findings can particularly speed up gate sequences for realistic idle times between sequential pulses and we show that this advantage increases with more interconnectivity of the quantum dots. We further demonstrate how a phase operation can introduce a relative phase between the computational and some of the leakage states, which can be advantageous for the construction of two-qubit gates. In addition to our theoretical analysis, we experimentally demonstrate and characterize a simultaneous exchange implementation of X rotations in a Si Ge quantum dot device and compare to the state of the art with sequential exchange pulses.
This thesis addresses the concept of quantum computing with semiconductor quantum dots. The basic unit of a quantum computer is a quantum mechanical two-level system, the so-called quantum bit (qubit). The qubit can be defined as the spin of an electron confined in a quantum dot or as a two-dimensional subspace of the Hilbert space for several spins. Some semiconductors have several minima in their conduction band, socalled valleys. A two-dimensional valley degree of freedom can also be considered as a qubit. In this thesis, quantum registers storing spin as well as valley qubits are described theoretically. Virtual hopping yields an exchange interaction between neighboring quantum dots, which reduces the energy of antisymmetric spin-valley states according to the Pauli principle. Considering the spin and the valley degrees of freedom of two electrons in neighboring quantum dots as qubits, the exchange interaction is a four-qubit interaction. In this thesis, it will be shown that it is, nevertheless, possible to generate a universal two-qubit gate for spin qubits or for valley qubits by combining the exchange interaction and individual single-qubit gates. The exchange interaction in this two-electron double quantum dot directly provides a universal two-qubit gate for one spin and one valley qubit as well. For this, the qubits are defined as suitable subspaces, spanned by the singlet and one triplet state of the spin and the valley states, respectively, Using those gates, arbitrary quantum operations can be performed for single-spin and single-valley qubits in the same quantum register, where in one double quantum dot the quantum states are restricted to the singlet-triplet subspace. While in this register single-spin and single-valley rotations are required, these gates are dispensable in a quantum register storing spin and valley singlet-triplet qubits. The single-qubit operations, in this case, can be provided by the exchange interaction and a gradient in the energy splitting of spin and valley states when the spin qubit is stored in a double quantum dot with spin degrees of freedom only and when the spin states in the double quantum dot which stores the valley qubit are polarized. For providing the two-qubit gate, the spin and the valley qubits need to be stored in the same double quantum dot. The crucial task for this register is to interchange the spin of a spin-only and a spin-valley quantum dot in order to switch between the single-qubit and the two-qubit operation mode. This interchanging of the spin can be achieved by a valley-depending virtual hopping between the quantum dots. Furthermore, echo sequences for a so-called exchange-only qubit are considered. An exchange-only qubit is defined as a subspace in a system of three electron spins in a triple quantum dot. An inhomogeneous magnetic field, which may be caused by nuclear spins in the semiconductor, can lead to decoherence and leakage, i.e., the state might leave the qubit subspace. Suppressing this effect by an echo sequence which consists of pulses interchanging neighboring spin states, so-called SWAP gates, was proposed. Controllability over these quantum operations is provided via the exchange interaction. In this thesis, the performance of different such sequences is investigated. The analysis shows that optimization strategies developed for single spin echoes can be adapted for the three spin system. The echo sequences can be different in their order of applied SWAP gates interchanging the spins in the first and second dots or in the second and third dots. The noise suppression performance depends slightly on this order of SWAP gates. For two spins in a double quantum dot a scheme for quantum state tomography is presented. The corresponding measurement operators are constructed from a set of mutually unbiased bases of the four-dimensional two-qubit Hilbert space. These measurements are represented by short sequences of no more than three elementary quantum gates and projective measurements by the well-established spin-to-charge conversion.
A constructive scheme has been devised to enable mapping of any quantum computation into a spintronic circuit in which the computation is encoded in a basis that is, in principle, immune to quantum decoherence. The scheme is implemented by an algorithm that utilizes multiple physical spins to encode each logical bit in such a way that collective errors affecting all the physical spins do not disturb the logical bit. The scheme is expected to be of use to experimenters working on spintronic implementations of quantum logic. Spintronic computing devices use quantum-mechanical spins (typically, electron spins) to encode logical bits. Bits thus encoded (denoted qubits) are potentially susceptible to errors caused by noise and decoherence. The traditional model of quantum computation is based partly on the assumption that each qubit is implemented by use of a single two-state quantum system, such as an electron or other spin-1.2 particle. It can be surprisingly difficult to achieve certain gate operations . most notably, those of arbitrary 1-qubit gates . in spintronic hardware according to this model. However, ironically, certain 2-qubit interactions (in particular, spin-spin exchange interactions) can be achieved relatively easily in spintronic hardware. Therefore, it would be fortunate if it were possible to implement any 1-qubit gate by use of a spin-spin exchange interaction. While such a direct representation is not possible, it is possible to achieve an arbitrary 1-qubit gate indirectly by means of a sequence of four spin-spin exchange interactions, which could be implemented by use of four exchange gates. Accordingly, the present scheme provides for mapping any 1-qubit gate in the logical basis into an equivalent sequence of at most four spin-spin exchange interactions in the physical (encoded) basis. The complexity of the mathematical derivation of the scheme from basic quantum principles precludes a description within this article; it must suffice to report that the derivation provides explicit constructions for finding the exchange couplings in the physical basis needed to implement any arbitrary 1-qubit gate. These constructions lead to spintronic encodings of quantum logic that are more efficient than those of a previously published scheme that utilizes a universal but fixed set of gates.
The Heisenberg exchange interaction between neighboring quantum dots allows precise voltage control over spin dynamics, due to the ability to precisely control the overlap of orbital wavefunctions by gate electrodes. This allows the study of fundamental electronic phenomena and finds applications in quantum information processing. Although spin-based quantum circuits based on short-range exchange interactions are possible, the development of scalable, longer-range coupling schemes constitutes a critical challenge within the spin-qubit community. Approaches based on capacitative coupling and cavity-mediated interactions effectively couple spin qubits to the charge degree of freedom, making them susceptible to electrically-induced decoherence. The alternative is to extend the range of the Heisenberg exchange interaction by means of a quantum mediator. Here, we show that a multielectron quantum dot with 50-100 electrons serves as an excellent mediator, preserving speed and coherence of the resulting spin-spin coupling while providing several functionalities that are of practical importance. These include speed (mediated two-qubit rates up to several gigahertz), distance (of order of a micrometer), voltage control, possibility of sweet spot operation (reducing susceptibility to charge noise), and reversal of the interaction sign (useful for dynamical decoupling from noise).
We consider a model of two interacting always-on, exchange-only qubits for which controlled phase (CPHASE), controlled NOT (CNOT), quantum Fourier transform (QFT) and SWAP operations can be implemented only in a few electrical pulses in a nanosecond time scale. Each qubit is built of three quantum dots (TQD) in a triangular geometry with three electron spins which are always kept coupled by exchange interactions only. The qubit states are encoded in a doublet subspace and are fully electrically controlled by a voltage applied to gate electrodes. The two qubit quantum gates are realized by short electrical pulses which change the triangular symmetry of TQD and switch on exchange interaction between the qubits. We found an optimal configuration to implement the CPHASE gate by a single pulse of the order 2.3 ns. Using this gate, in combination with single qubit operations, we searched for optimal conditions to perform the other gates: CNOT, QFT and SWAP. Our studies take into account environment effects and leakage processes as well. The results suggest that the system can be implemented for fault tolerant quantum computations.