V. John
Please Note
17 records found
1
At the start of my PhD, holes in germanium had only just established themselves as a promising alternative to electrons in silicon [1–5]. Prior experiments demonstrated that proof-of-principle quantum processors are feasible in germanium heterostructures, showing that spin-orbit interactions are not detrimental to device performance but can even be an important asset. While the potential of germanium quantum devices was clear, a pathway for scaling them up and a solid physical understanding of their behaviour were still missing.
Subsequent theoretical work [6–9] and experimental progress [10–13], including chapter 6, 7 and 9 of this thesis, have substantially advanced our understanding of hole spin qubit devices in germanium. The concept of spin quantisation axes has proved particularly effective in interpreting shuttle-induced dynamics and relating the g-tensor to spin evolution. This enabled hopping-based, high-fidelity single-qubit gates and the exploration of a ten-qubit array in chapter 6. In chapter 7,we tuned a ten-qubit array across several charge configurations, identified their driving mechanisms, and found promising operation points that support more reliable and local control at scale. Improved insight into the g-tensor also opened pathways to new qubit encodings and manipulation schemes, one of which is presented in chapter 9. Additional side gates shape the wave function and thereby tune the g-tensor, enabling access to distinct operation regimes. Experimental validation is ongoing.
Motivated by scalability challenges in large arrays, chapter 4 examines bichromatic driving, where two microwave signals applied to orthogonal lines locally mix to drive the qubit. This operation scheme is specifically designed for architectures with shared
control lines. In chapter 5, a unit cell of such a shared control architecture has successfully been realised by showcasing the charge tune-up of a quantum dot array with shared control lines. While we brought the full array into the odd-charge configuration for the
first time, device variability prevented progress toward qubit operation. In chapter 8, we explored qubit performance using an external magnet placed outside the dilution refrigerator. Despite the initially counter-intuitive idea of operating highly anisotropic spin qubits with a permanent magnet, we show that sufficient in- and out-of-plane tunability exists to reach favourable operating regimes, improve coherence times, and simplify system hardware.
In summary, we have demonstrated that spin-orbit coupling enables a wide range of opportunities for high-fidelity qubit control, from hopping-based gates to g-tensor engineering. We advanced germanium spin qubit devices from four-qubit systems to a
ten-qubit array, while also identifying and applying strategies to further enhance scalability. Germanium hole spin qubits controlled through intrinsic spin-orbit interaction remain at the forefront of scientific and technological advancement in the field of semiconductor-based quantum processing units. ...
At the start of my PhD, holes in germanium had only just established themselves as a promising alternative to electrons in silicon [1–5]. Prior experiments demonstrated that proof-of-principle quantum processors are feasible in germanium heterostructures, showing that spin-orbit interactions are not detrimental to device performance but can even be an important asset. While the potential of germanium quantum devices was clear, a pathway for scaling them up and a solid physical understanding of their behaviour were still missing.
Subsequent theoretical work [6–9] and experimental progress [10–13], including chapter 6, 7 and 9 of this thesis, have substantially advanced our understanding of hole spin qubit devices in germanium. The concept of spin quantisation axes has proved particularly effective in interpreting shuttle-induced dynamics and relating the g-tensor to spin evolution. This enabled hopping-based, high-fidelity single-qubit gates and the exploration of a ten-qubit array in chapter 6. In chapter 7,we tuned a ten-qubit array across several charge configurations, identified their driving mechanisms, and found promising operation points that support more reliable and local control at scale. Improved insight into the g-tensor also opened pathways to new qubit encodings and manipulation schemes, one of which is presented in chapter 9. Additional side gates shape the wave function and thereby tune the g-tensor, enabling access to distinct operation regimes. Experimental validation is ongoing.
Motivated by scalability challenges in large arrays, chapter 4 examines bichromatic driving, where two microwave signals applied to orthogonal lines locally mix to drive the qubit. This operation scheme is specifically designed for architectures with shared
control lines. In chapter 5, a unit cell of such a shared control architecture has successfully been realised by showcasing the charge tune-up of a quantum dot array with shared control lines. While we brought the full array into the odd-charge configuration for the
first time, device variability prevented progress toward qubit operation. In chapter 8, we explored qubit performance using an external magnet placed outside the dilution refrigerator. Despite the initially counter-intuitive idea of operating highly anisotropic spin qubits with a permanent magnet, we show that sufficient in- and out-of-plane tunability exists to reach favourable operating regimes, improve coherence times, and simplify system hardware.
In summary, we have demonstrated that spin-orbit coupling enables a wide range of opportunities for high-fidelity qubit control, from hopping-based gates to g-tensor engineering. We advanced germanium spin qubit devices from four-qubit systems to a
ten-qubit array, while also identifying and applying strategies to further enhance scalability. Germanium hole spin qubits controlled through intrinsic spin-orbit interaction remain at the forefront of scientific and technological advancement in the field of semiconductor-based quantum processing units.
Quantum computers require the systematic operation of qubits with high fidelity. For holes in germanium, the spin-orbit interaction allows for electric, fast and high-fidelity qubit gates. However, the strong g-tensor anisotropy of holes in germanium and their sensitivity to the operational and environmental conditions challenge the operation of large qubit arrays. Here, we investigate a two-dimensional 10-spin qubit array with single-qubit gate fidelities above 99%, and obtain surprisingly uniform qubit properties. By tuning the hole occupation, we demonstrate control over the spin susceptibility, enabling fast plunger gate driving with Rabi frequencies consistently above 1.45 MHz/ (mV ⋅ T). Moreover, we probe the locality of electric dipole spin resonance and find that the configuration with three-hole occupancy driven by the associated quantum dot plunger gate reduces crosstalk, lowering it by an average factor of 2.5 to nearest neighbours, compared to single-hole plunger driving. Theoretical modelling points towards the pronounced anisotropy of p-like orbitals as the main mechanism with significant contributions through Coulomb interactions, giving directions for reproducible control of large qubit arrays.
Disorder in the heterogeneous material stack of semiconductor spin qubit systems introduces noise that compromises quantum information processing, posing a challenge to coherently control large-scale quantum devices. Here we exploit low-disorder epitaxial, strained quantum wells in Ge/SiGe heterostructures grown on Ge wafers to comprehensively probe the noise properties of complex micrometre-scale devices, comprising quantum dots arranged in a two-dimensional array. We demonstrate an average low charge noise across different locations on the wafer, providing a benchmark for quantum confined holes. We then establish spin qubit control and extend our investigation from electrical to magnetic noise through spin echo measurements. Exploiting dynamical decoupling sequences, we quantify the power spectral density components arising from the hyperfine interaction with 73Ge spinful isotopes and identify coherence modulations associated with the interaction with the 29Si nuclear spin bath near the Ge quantum well, underscoring the need for full isotopic purification of the qubit host environment.
All-electrical baseband control of qubits facilitates scaling up quantum processors by removing issues of crosstalk and heat generation. In semiconductor quantum dots, this is enabled by multispin qubit encodings, such as the exchange-only qubit. However, their performance is limited by unavoidable leakage states that are energetically close to the computational subspace. In this Letter, we introduce an alternative, scalable spin qubit architecture that leverages strong spin-orbit interactions of hole nanostructures for baseband qubit operations while completely eliminating leakage channels and reducing the overall gate overhead. This encoding is intrinsically robust to local variability in hole spin properties and operates with two degenerate states, removing the need for precise calibration and mitigating heat generation from fast signal sources. Finally, our architecture is fully compatible with current technology, utilizing the same initialization, readout, and multiqubit protocols of state-of-The-Art spin-1/2 systems. By addressing critical scalability challenges, our design offers a robust and scalable pathway for semiconductor spin qubit technologies.
Qubits that can be efficiently controlled are essential for the development of scalable quantum hardware. Although resonant control is used to execute high-fidelity quantum gates, the scalability is challenged by the integration of high-frequency oscillating signals, qubit cross-talk, and heating. Here, we show that by engineering the hopping of spins between quantum dots with a site-dependent spin quantization axis, quantum control can be established with discrete signals. We demonstrate hopping-based quantum logic and obtain single-qubit gate fidelities of 99.97%, coherent shuttling fidelities of 99.992% per hop, and a two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.3%, corresponding to error rates that have been predicted to allow for quantum error correction. We also show that hopping spins constitute a tuning method by statistically mapping the coherence of a 10-quantum dot system. Our results show that dense quantum dot arrays with sparse occupation could be developed for efficient and high-connectivity qubit registers.
Electrically driven spin resonance is a powerful technique for controlling semiconductor spin qubits. However, it faces challenges in qubit addressability and off-resonance driving in larger systems. We demonstrate coherent bichromatic Rabi control of quantum dot hole spin qubits, offering a spatially selective approach for large qubit arrays. By applying simultaneous microwave bursts to different gate electrodes, we observe multichromatic resonance lines and resonance anticrossings that are caused by the ac Stark shift. Our theoretical framework aligns with experimental data, highlighting interdot motion as the dominant mechanism for bichromatic driving.
The efficient control of a large number of qubits is one of the most challenging aspects for practical quantum computing. Current approaches in solid-state quantum technology are based on brute-force methods, where each and every qubit requires at least one unique control line—an approach that will become unsustainable when scaling to the required millions of qubits. Here, inspired by random-access architectures in classical electronics, we introduce the shared control of semiconductor quantum dots to efficiently operate a two-dimensional crossbar array in planar germanium. We tune the entire array, comprising 16 quantum dots, to the few-hole regime. We then confine an odd number of holes in each site to isolate an unpaired spin per dot. Moving forward, we demonstrate on a vertical and a horizontal double quantum dot a method for the selective control of the interdot coupling and achieve a tunnel coupling tunability over more than 10 GHz. The operation of a quantum electronic device with fewer control terminals than tunable experimental parameters represents a compelling step forward in the construction of scalable quantum technology.