No Arabic abstract
Long coherence times and fast gate operations are desirable but often conflicting requirements for physical qubits. This conflict can be resolved by resorting to fast qubits for operations, and by storing their state in a `quantum memory while idle. The $^{31}$P donor in silicon comes naturally equipped with a fast qubit (the electron spin) and a long-lived qubit (the $^{31}$P nuclear spin), coexisting in a bound state at cryogenic temperatures. Here, we demonstrate storage and retrieval of quantum information from a single donor electron spin to its host phosphorus nucleus in isotopically-enriched $^{28}$Si. The fidelity of the memory process is characterised via both state and process tomography. We report an overall process fidelity of $F_p =$81${pm}$7%, a memory fidelity ($F_m$) of over 90%, and memory storage times up to 80 ms. These values are limited by a transient shift of the electron spin resonance frequency following high-power radiofrequency pulses.
Building upon the demonstration of coherent control and single-shot readout of the electron and nuclear spins of individual 31-P atoms in silicon, we present here a systematic experimental estimate of quantum gate fidelities using randomized benchmarking of 1-qubit gates in the Clifford group. We apply this analysis to the electron and the ionized 31-P nucleus of a single P donor in isotopically purified 28-Si. We find average gate fidelities of 99.95 % for the electron, and 99.99 % for the nuclear spin. These values are above certain error correction thresholds, and demonstrate the potential of donor-based quantum computing in silicon. By studying the influence of the shape and power of the control pulses, we find evidence that the present limitation to the gate fidelity is mostly related to the external hardware, and not the intrinsic behaviour of the qubit.
Single-photon switches and transistors generate strong photon-photon interactions that are essential for quantum circuits and networks. However, to deterministically control an optical signal with a single photon requires strong interactions with a quantum memory, which have been lacking in a solid-state platform. We realize a single-photon switch and transistor enabled by a solid-state quantum memory. Our device consists of a semiconductor spin qubit strongly coupled to a nanophotonic cavity. The spin qubit enables a single gate photon to switch a signal field containing up to an average of 27.7 photons, with a switching time of 63 ps. Our results show that semiconductor nanophotonic devices can produce strong and controlled photon-photon interactions that could enable high-bandwidth photonic quantum information processing.
Visible and infra-red light emitted at a Ag-Ag(111) junction has been investigated from tunneling to single atom contact conditions with a scanning tunneling microscope. The light intensity varies in a highly nonlinear fashion with the conductance of the junction and exhibits a minimum at conductances close to the conductance quantum. The data are interpreted in terms of current noise at optical frequencies, which is characteristic of partially open transport channels.
We demonstrate the realization of a quantum register using a string of single neutral atoms which are trapped in an optical dipole trap. The atoms are selectively and coherently manipulated in a magnetic field gradient using microwave radiation. Our addressing scheme operates with a high spatial resolution and qubit rotations on individual atoms are performed with 99% contrast. In a final read-out operation we analyze each individual atomic state. Finally, we have measured the coherence time and identified the predominant dephasing mechanism for our register.
We characterize germanium-vacancy GeVn complexes in silicon using first-principles Density Functional Theory calculations with screening-dependent hybrid functionals. We report on the local geometry and electronic excited states of these defects, including charge transition levels corresponding to the addition of one or more electrons to the defect. Our main theoretical result concerns the GeV complex, which we show to give rise to two excited states deep in the gap, at -0.51 and -0.35 eV from the conduction band, consistently with the available spectroscopic data. The adopted theoretical scheme, suitable to compute a reliable estimate of the wavefunction decay, leads us to predict that such states are associated to an electron localization over a length of about 0.45 nm. By combining the electronic properties of the bare silicon vacancy, carrying deep states in the band gap, with the spatial controllability arising from single Ge ion implantation techniques, the GeVn complex emerges as a suitable ingredient for silicon-based room-temperature single-atom devices.