Spins in SiGe quantum dots are promising candidates for quantum bits but are also challenging due to the valley degeneracy which could potentially cause spin decoherence and weak spin-orbital coupling. In this work we demonstrate that valley states can serve as an asset that enables two-axis control of a singlet-triplet qubit formed in a double quantum dot without the application of a magnetic field gradient. We measure the valley spectrum in each dot using magnetic field spectroscopy of Zeeman split triplet states. The interdot transition between ground states requires an electron to flip between valleys, which in turn provides a g-factor difference $Delta g$ between two dots. This $Delta g$ serves as an effective magnetic field gradient and allows for qubit rotations with a rate that increases linearly with an external magnetic field. We measured several interdot transitions and found that this valley introduced $Delta g$ is universal and electrically tunable. This could potentially simplify scaling up quantum information processing in the SiGe platform by removing the requirement for magnetic field gradients which are difficult to engineer.
Silicon quantum dot qubits must contend with low-lying valley excited states which are sensitive functions of the quantum well heterostructure and disorder; quantifying and maximizing the energies of these states are critical to improving device performance. We describe a spectroscopic method for probing excited states in isolated Si/SiGe double quantum dots using standard baseband pulsing techniques, easing the extraction of energy spectra in multiple-dot devices. We use this method to measure dozens of valley excited state energies spanning multiple wafers, quantum dots, and orbital states, crucial for evaluating the dependence of valley splitting on quantum well width and other epitaxial conditions. Our results suggest that narrower wells can be beneficial for improving valley splittings, but this effect can be confounded by variations in growth and fabrication conditions. These results underscore the importance of valley splitting measurements for guiding the development of Si qubits.
We study spatial noise correlations in a Si/SiGe two-qubit device with integrated micromagnets. Our method relies on the concept of decoherence-free subspaces, whereby we measure the coherence time for two different Bell states, designed to be sensitive only to either correlated or anti-correlated noise respectively. From these measurements, we find weak correlations in low-frequency noise acting on the two qubits, while no correlations could be detected in high-frequency noise. A theoretical model and numerical simulations give further insight into the additive effect of multiple independent (anti-)correlated noise sources with an asymmetric effect on the two qubits. Such a scenario is plausible given the data and our understanding of the physics of this system. This work is highly relevant for the design of optimized quantum error correction codes for spin qubits in quantum dot arrays, as well as for optimizing the design of future quantum dot arrays.
The coherent control of spin qubits forms the basis of many applications in quantum information processing and nanoscale sensing, imaging and spectroscopy. Such control is conventionally achieved by direct driving of the qubit transition with a resonant global field, typically at microwave frequencies. Here we introduce an approach that relies on the resonant driving of nearby environment spins, whose localised magnetic field in turn drives the qubit when the environmental spin Rabi frequency matches the qubit resonance. This concept of environmentally mediated resonance (EMR) is explored experimentally using a qubit based on a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond, with nearby electronic spins serving as the environmental mediators. We demonstrate EMR driven coherent control of the NV spin-state, including the observation of Rabi oscillations, free induction decay, and spin-echo. This technique also provides a way to probe the nanoscale environment of spin qubits, which we illustrate by acquisition of electron spin resonance spectra of single NV centres in various settings.
The presence of valley states is a significant obstacle to realizing quantum information technologies in Silicon quantum dots, as leakage into alternate valley states can introduce errors into the computation. We use a perturbative analytical approach to study the dynamics of exchange-coupled quantum dots with valley degrees of freedom. We show that if the valley splitting is large and electrons are not properly initialized to valley eigenstates, then time evolution of the system will lead to spin-valley entanglement. Spin-valley entanglement will also occur if the valley splitting is small and electrons are not initialized to the same valley state. Additionally, we show that for small valley splitting, spin-valley entanglement does not affect measurement probabilities of two-qubit systems; however, systems with more qubits will be affected. This means that two-qubit gate fidelities measured in two-qubit systems may miss the effects of valley degrees of freedom. Our work shows how the existence of valleys may adversely affect multiqubit fidelities even when the system temperature is very low.
Characterizing charge noise is of prime importance to the semiconductor spin qubit community. We analyze the echo amplitude data from a recent experiment [Yoneda et al., Nat. Nanotechnol. 13, 102 (2018)] and note that the data shows small but consistent deviations from a $1/f^alpha$ noise power spectrum at the higher frequencies in the measured range. We report the results of using a physical noise model based on two-level fluctuators to fit the data and find that it can mostly explain the deviations. While our results are suggestive rather than conclusive, they provide what may be an early indication of a high-frequency cutoff in the charge noise. The location of this cutoff, where the power spectral density of the noise gradually rolls off from $1/f$ to $1/f^2$, crucial knowledge for designing precise qubit control pulses, is given by our fit of the data to be around 200 kHz.