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TRANSCRIPT
Quantum Computation With Spins In Quantum Dots
Fikeraddis Damtie
June 10, 2013
1 Introduction
Physical implementation of quantum computating has been an active area of research since the
last couple of decades. In classical computing, the transmission and manipulation of classical
information is carried out by physical machines (computer hardwares, etc.). In theses machines
the manipulation and transmission of information can be described using the laws of classical
physics. Since Newtonian mechanics is a special limit of quantum mechanics, computers making
use of the laws of quantum mechanics have greater computational power than classical computers.
This need to create a powerful computing machine is the driving motor for research in the field of
quantum computing.
Until today, there are a few different schemes for implementing a quantum computer based on
the David Divincenzo chriterias. Among these are: Spectral hole burning, Trapped ion, e-Helium,
Gated qubits, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Optics, Quantum dots, Neutral atom, superconductors
and doped silicon. In this project only the quantum dot scheme will be discussed. In the year
1997 Daniel Loss and David P.DiVincenzo proposed a spin-qubit quantum computer also called
The Loss-DiVincenzo quantum computer. This proposal is now considered to be one of the
most promising candidates for quantum computation in the solid state. The main idea of the
proposal was to use the intrinsic spin-1/2 degrees of freedom of individual elecrons confined in
semiconductor quantum dots. The proposal was made in a way to satisfy the five requirements for
quantum computing by David diVincenzo which will be described in sec. 2 in the report. Namely
1. A scalable physical system with well characterized quibits
2. The ability to initialize the state of the qubits to a simple fiducial state such as |000...〉
3. Long relevant decoherence times, much longer than the gate operation time
4. A "universal" set of quantum gates
5. A qubit-specific measurement capability
A good candidate for such quantum computer is single and double lateral quantum dot systems.
This report is organized as follows. In section 2 general requirements for the physical implementa-
tion of quantum computation the so called diVincenzo criteria is discussed briefly. Section 3 will
introduce the basics of quantum dot physics. In this section the properties of single and double
quantum dot will be discussed. In section 4 a description of the Loss-diVincenzo proposal for quan-
tum computation based on single electron spin in semiconductor quantum dot will be given. In
section 5, analysis of the theoretical and experimental development in the last decade will be given.
The last section will be devoted to discussion and assesment of main qualitative and quantitative
1
obstacles for an ultimate realization of the spin based quantum computer.
For the report, I mainly based on the papers [9] and [5]
2 DiVincenzo requirements for the physical implementation
of quantum computation
In his paper "The Physical Implementation of Quantum Computation"[3], David P. DiVincenzo
and his co-workers described Five (plus two) requirements for the implementation of quantum
computations. Below I will try to briefly mention the requirements.
1. A scalable physical system with well characterized quibits : The requirement here is that a
physical system containing a collection of qubits is needed at the beginning. Here a qubit
being "well characterized" can mean different things. It can for example mean that its
physical parameters should be accurately known including the internal Hamiltonian of the
qubit, the presence of and couplings to other states of the qubit, the interaction with other
qubits and the couplings to external fields that might be used to manipulate the state of the
qubit.
2. The ability to initialize the state of the qubits to a simple fiducial state such as |000...〉:This is analogues to say that registers should be initialized to a known value before start of
computation, which is a straight forward computing requirement for classical computation.
Another reason for this is initialization requirement is from the point of quantum error
correction which requires a continous, fresh supply of qubits in a low entropy state. (link the
|0〉) state.
3. Long relevant decoherence times, much longer than the gate operation time: An overly sim-
plified definition for a coherence time can be described as the time for a generic qubit state
|ψ〉 = a|0〉 + b|1〉 to be transformed in to the mixture ρ = |a|2|0〉〉0| + |b|2|1〉〉1|. This time
helps characterize the dynamics of a qubit in contact with its enviroment. Decoherance is
an important concept in quantum mechanics. It is ientified as the principal mechanism for
the emergence of classical behaviour. For quantum computating, decherance can be very can
be very dangerous. If the qubit system has a fast decoherence time, the capability of the
quantum computer will not be very different from that of the classical ones.Hence in quan-
tum computing, it is desirable to have long enough decoherence time such that the uniquely
quantum features of quantum computating can have a chance to come in to play. The answer
to "How long is long enough?" is determined by quantum error correction which will not be
2
discussed in this report see for example [7].
4. A "universal" set of quantum gates :This fourth requirement can be considered as the most
important for quantum computing. One and two qubit gates are needed.
5. A qubit-specific measurement capability :This is also called a readout. The result of a compu-
tation must be readout. This requires the ability to measure specific qubits.
For computation alone, the above five requirements are enough. But the advantages of
quantum information processing are not manifest solely for straight forward computation
only. There are different kinds of information- processing tasks that involve more that just
computation and for which quantum tools provide a unique advantage. One of such tasks
is quantum communication: the transmission of intact qubits from place to place. If one
consider additional information processing tasks than just computation only, two more re-
qurements are needed to be fulfilled.
6. The ability to interconvert stationary and flying qubit :
7. The ability faithfully to transmit flying qubits between specified locations :
[3]
Before discussing the Loss-diVincenzo proposal for quantum computer based on spin in quantum
dots, it might be a good idea to spend some time discussing the basics of quantum dot physics
briefly.
3 Semiconductor Quantum Dots
Quantum dot’s are artificial sub-micron structures in a solid, typically consisting of 103−109 atoms
and comparable number of electrons. [6] As they are confined in all three dimensions, the resulting
electronic states exhibit discreteness.
3
Figure 1: Top: Schematic representation of three, two, one, and zero-dimensional nanostructures
made using semiconductor hetrostructures. Bottom: The corresponding densities of electronic
states. [1]
In a three dimensional bulk semiconductor electrons are free in all three dimensions. In 2DEG
(Two dimensional electron gas) electrons are free to move in a plane in two dimensions. In one
Dimensional quantum wires, electrons are allowed only to move along the direction of length of
the wire. In zero dimensional quantum dots, electronic motion is restricted in all three dimensions
and the density of state is discrete.
By using the constant interaction model, it is possible to describe for example the current voltage
characterstics of a quantum dot system. In the constant interaction model, Coulomb interaction
between electrons in the dot and electrons in the surrounding enviroment is replaced by self-
capacitances.
3.1 Resonant Tunneling Through Quantum Dots
Due to the discreteness of the electronic states in quantum dots electron transport is restricted to
resonant conditions. For a quantum dot coupled to a source and drain contact, resonant tunneling
occurs when an electronic state which can either be occupied or empty in one of the contacts align
with any of the available states in the dot. Schematically this situation is shown as in the picture
below
4
Figure 2: Schematic diagram of resonant condition through a single quantum dot showing the
electrochemical potential level of a dot coupled to the source and drain reservoirs. [4]
As one can see from the above schematic, resonant tunneling occurs when there is available discrete
level of the dot in between the source and drain chemical potentials. As a result, electrons flow
through the dot sequentially and are detected as a change in source-drain current. [4]
Practically, in experiments, the chemical potentials of the source and drain contact can be varied
by varying the source drain bias as µs − µd = eVsd. Similarly, the electrochemical potential in
the dot can be adjusted by varying the gate voltage Vg. By plotting the gate voltage versus the
source drain bias on a two-dimensional map, which is called the charge-stability diagram, one can
get information about the sequential tunneling and total number of particles involved as there
are diamond-shaped regions with well-defined charge numbers in the dot. These diamond-shaped
regions are called Coulomb diamonds. [4] The typical charge stability diagram of a single quantum
dot coupled to source and drain contacts is shown in the figure below.
5
Figure 3: A typical charge stability diagram of a single quantum dot coupled to the source and
drain contact which shows Coulomb diamond due to a transport through the ground state of the
quantum dot and additional transport lines running parallel to the diamond edges at an energy
∆E. These lines can be attributed to transport due either to other single particle levels or inelastic
processes such as emission or absorption of phonon or phonon with energy ∆E. [4]
3.2 Resonant Tunneling Through Double Quantum Dots
Double quantum dots are sometimes called artificial molecules as they are made by coupling two
quantum dots either vertically or in parallel. Depending on how strongly the two dots are coupled,
they can form either ionic-like bonding (weak tunnel coupling) or covalent-like bonding (strong
tunnel coupling). [8] In the case of weak tunnel coupling, the electrons are localized on the
individual dots so that the binding occurs due to the coulomb interaction. On the other hand, in
the case of strong coupling, the two dots are quantum mechanically coupled by tunnel coupling.
As a result, electrons can tunnel between the two dots in a phase coherent way. During strong
coupling, the electrons cannot be regarded as particles that can reside in a particular dot, instead,
it must be thought of as a wave that is de localized over the two dots. The binding force between
the two dots in strong coupling case is a result of the fact that the bonding state of the strongly
coupled double dot has a lower energy than the energies of the original states of the individual
dots. This difference in energy forms the binding.
6
3.3 Charge Stability Diagrams of Double Quantum Dots
Understanding the charge stability diagrams helps to visualize the equilibrium charge states in a
double dot system. [8] It is sometimes called a honeycomb diagram as it has a similar structure
with a honeycomb. A typical stability diagram for a double quantum dot with small, intermediate
and large interdot Coulomb coupling is shown in the schematic below.
Figure 4: Schematic stability diagram of a double dot system for (a) Small (b) intermediate, and
(c) large interdot coupling. The equilibrium charge in each dot in each domain is denoted by
(N1, N2). (d) represents the two kinds of triple points in the honey comb which illustrates the
electron transfer processes (•) and hole transfer processes (◦) [8]
Having the basics of single and quantum dot, it is now time to discuss the main point of the
project, the Loss-Divincenzo proposal.
7
Figure 5: A double quantum dot. Top-gates are set to an electrostatic voltage configuration that
confines electrons in the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) below to the circular regions shown.
Applying a negative voltage to the back- gate, the dots can be depleted until they each contain
only one single electron, each with an associated spin 12operator SL(R) for the electron in the left
(right) dot. The | ↑〉 and | ↓〉 spin 12states of each electron provide a qubit (two-level quantum
system).[9]
4 Loss-diVincenzo proposal for quantum computation based
on single electron spins in semiconductor quantum dots.
In their original proposal (Loss and DiVincenzo 1998) the qubit is realized as the spin of excess
electron on a single-electron quantum dot as shown schematically in fig.5
In fig. 5 the Voltages applied to the top gates create confining potential for electrons in a two-
dimensional electron gas (2DEG), created below the surface. In order to deplete the 2DEG locally,
a negative voltage can be applied to a back-gate. This allow the number of electrons in each dot
to be reduced down to one (the single electron regime). This step can be considered as the first in
the diVincenzo criteria Creating a well characterized qubit, the single electron.
To ensure a single two-level system is available to be used as a qubit, it is practical to consider
single isolated electron spins (with intrinsic spin 1/2) confined to single orbital levels. By operating
a quantum dot in a Coulomb blockade regime (where the energy for the addition of an electron to
the quantum dot is larger than the energy that can be supplied by electrons in the source or drain
leads) it is possible to demonstrate control over the charging of a quantum dot electron-by-electron
in a single gated quantum dot. In this case, the charge on the quantum dot is conserved, and no
8
electrons can tunnel onto or off of the dot.
With the current technology in material fabrication and gating techniques, it is possible to reach
single electron regime for example in in single vertical (Tarucha et al. 1996) and gated lat-
eral(Ciroga et al.) dots, as well as double dots (Elzerman et al. 2003, Hayashi et al. 2003,
Petta et al. 2004).
The second step in the diVincenzo criteria will be initialization. One way to do this is to initialize
all qubits in the quantum computer to the Zeeman ground state | ↑〉 = |0〉. This could be
achieved by allowing all spins to reach thermal equilibrium at temperature T in the presence of a
strong magnetic field B, such that |gµBB| > kBT , with g-factor g < 0, Bohr magneton µB, and
Boltzmann’s constant KB (Loss and DiVincenzo 1998).
Once we have the qubits initialized to some state, we want them to remain in that state until a
computation can be executed. The spins-1/2 of single electrons are intrinsic two-level systems,
which cannot "leak" into higher excited states in the absence of environmental coupling.
In addition because of the fact that electron spins can only couple to charge degrees of freedom
indirectly through the spin-orbit (or hyperfine) interactions, they are relatively immune to fluctua-
tions in the surrounding electronic environment. This way we address the diVincenzo requirement
"Long relevant decoherence times, much longer than the gate operation time" for electron spins in
quantum dots.
By varying the Zeeman splitting on each dot individually (Loss and DiVincenzo 1998) the Single-
qubit operations in the Loss-DiVincenzo quantum computer could be carried out.
This can be done in a number of different ways. Through the g-factor modulation (Salis et al.
2001), the inclusion of magnetic layers (Myers et al. 2005) (see Figure 6), modification of the local
Overhauser field due to hyperfine couplings (Burkard et al. 1999), or with nearby ferromagnetic
dots (Loss and DiVincenzo 1998) are some of the ways.
Within the Loss-DiVincenzo proposal, two-qubit operations can be performed by pulsing the ex-
change coupling between two neighboring qubit spins "on" to a non-zero value (J(t) = J0 6= 0, t ∈{−τs/2...τs/2) for a switching time τs, then switching it "off" (J(t) = 0, t /∈ {−τs/2...τs/2).
The way to achieve this switching can be by briefly lowering a center-gate barrier between neigh-
boring electrons, resulting in an appreciable overlap of the electron wavefunctions (Loss and DiVin-
cenzo 1998), or alternatively, by pulsing the relative back-gate voltage of neighboring dots (Petta
et al. 2005a).
Under such an operation (and in the absence of Zeeman or weaker spin-orbit or dipolar interac-
tions), the effective two-spin Hamiltonian takes the form of an isotropic Heisenberg exchange term,
9
Figure 6: A series of exchange-coupled electron spins. Single-qubit operations could be performed
in such a structure using electron spin resonance (ESR), which would require an rf transverse
magnetic field B||ac , and a site-selective Zeeman splitting g(x)µBB⊥ , which might be achieved
through g−factor modu lation or magnetic layers. Two-qubit operations would be performed by
bringing two electrons into contact, introducing a nonzero wavefunction overlap and corresponding
exchange coupling for some time (two electrons on the right). In the idle state, the electrons can
be separated, eliminating the overlap and cor- responding exchange coupling with exponential
accuracy (two electrons on the left).[9]
given by (Loss and DiVincenzo 1998, Burkard et al. 1999)
Hex(t) = J(t)SL·SR (1)
where SL(R) is the spin 1/2 operator for the electron in the left (right) dot, as shown in Figure 5.
The exchange Hamiltonian Hex(t) generates the unitary evolution U(φ) = exp[−iφSL·SR], where
φ =∫J(t)dt~ . If the exchange is switched such thatφ =
∫J(t)dt/~ = J0τs/~ = π, U(φ) exchanges
the states of the two neighboring spins, i.e.: U(π)|n, n′〉 = |n′, n〉, where n and n′ are two arbitrarily
oriented unit vectors and |n, n′〉 indicates a simultaneous eigenstate of the two operators SL·nand SR·n′. U(π) implements the so-called swap operation. If the exchange is pulsed on for
the shorter time τs/2, the resulting operation U(π2) = (U(π))
12 is known as the "square-root-of-
swap" (√swap). The √swap operation in combination with arbitrary single-qubit operations is
suffcient for universal quantum computation (Barenco et al. 1995a, Loss and DiVincenzo 1998).
The √swap operation has been successfully implemented in experiments involving two electrons
confined to two neighboring quantum dots. (Petta et al. 2005a, Laird et al. 2005). Errors during
the √swap operation have been investigated due to nonadiabatic transitions to higher orbital
states (Schliemann et al. 2001, Requist et al. 2005), spin-orbit-interaction (Bonesteel et al. 2001,
Burkard and Loss 2002, Stepanenko et al. 2003), and hyperfine coupling to surrounding nuclear
spins (Petta et al. 2005a, Coish and Loss 2005, Klauser et al. 2005, Taylor et al. 2006). The
10
isotropic form of the exchange interaction given in Equation 1 is not always valid.
In realistic systems, a finite spin-orbit interaction leads to anisotropic terms which may cause
additional errors, but could also be used to perform universal quantum computing with two-spin
encoded qubits, in the absence of single-spin rotations (Bonesteel et al. 2001, Lidar and Wu 2002,
Stepanenko and Bonesteel 2004, Chutia et al. 2006).
In the Loss-DiVincenzo proposal, readout could be performed using spin- to-charge conversion.
This could be accomplished with a "spin filter" (spin- selective tunneling) to leads or a neighboring
dot, coupled with single-electron charge detection .
5 Analysis of the theoretical and experimental development
during the last decade
In this section, analysis and discussion of the progress in relation to the diVincenzo criteria for a
successful hardware implementation of a quantum computer will be addressed. Many researchers
worldwide in the field have been working hard toward the successful implementation of quantum
computer since its first proposal in 1997. A short summary in tabular form about progress in
QD systems will be given from a recent review paper. ("Prospects for Spin-Based Quantum
Computing in Quantum Dots" by Christoph Kloffel and Daniel Loss 2013) followed by an outlook
and coclusion.
11
Tab
le1
Overview
ofthestateof
theartforqu
antum
compu
ting
withspinsin
quan
tum
dots(Q
Ds),w
ithreferences
inpa
renthesesor
footno
tesa
Self-assem
bled
QDs
Lateral
QDsin
2DEGs
QDsin
nano
wires
Electrons
Holes
Sing
lespins
S-T0qu
bits
Electrons
Holes
Lifetim
esT1>
20ms(68)
T2:3
ms(120
,129
)T
� 2T
0:1msb
T1:0
.5ms(73,
74)
T2:1
.1ms(158
)T
� 2>
0:1msc
T1>
1s(70)
T2:0
.44ms(127
)T
� 2:37ns
(127
)T
Si 1>
1s(210
)
T1:5
ms(204
,206
)T2:2
76ms(131
)T
� 2:94ns
d
TSi 1∼
10ms(211
)T
�,Si
2:360
nse
T1
1ms(57)
T2:0
.16ms(57)
T� 2:8ns
(57)
T1:0
.6ms(232
)T2:n
.a.
T� 2:n:a:
Operation
times
t Z:8
.1ps
(129
)t X
:4ps
(129
,15
7)t S
W:1
7ps
(161
)
t Z:1
7ps
(158
)t X
:4ps
(158
)t S
W:2
5ps
(159
)
t Z:n
.a.f
t X:2
0ns
(188
)t S
W:3
50ps
(126
)
t Z:3
50ps
(126
)t X
:0.39ns
(100
)t c
cpf:30
nsg
t Z:n
.a.h
t X:8
.5ns
(57,
59)
t SW:n
.a.
n.a.
T2/t
op
1.83
105
4.43
104
229.23
103
n.a.
n.a.
Reado
utschemes
and
fidelitiesF
(visibilities
V)
F¼
96%
(166
)Reson
ance
fluo
rescence
inaQD
molecule
Other:
Farada
y(162
)an
dKerr(156
,16
3,16
5)rotation
spectroscopy
,resona
nce
fluo
rescence
(164
)
Absorption(74,
159)
andem
ission
(73,
158)
spectroscopy
(selection
rules)
V¼
65%
(192
)VSi¼
88%
(210
)Sp
in-selective
tunn
eling
F¼
86%
(193
)Sp
in-selective
tunn
eling(twospins)
Other:
Photon
-assisted
tunn
eling(189
)
V¼
90%
i
F¼
97%
j
Spin-dependent
charge
distribu
tion
(rf-QPC
i /SQD
j )
V¼
81%
k
Spin-dependent
tunn
elingrates
Other:
Dispersiveread
outl
F¼
70%–80
%m
Paulispinblocka
de
Other:
Dispersiveread
outn
Spin-dependent
charge
distribu
tion
(sensordo
tcoup
led
viafloa
ting
gate)o
Initialization
schemes
and
fidelitiesF i
n
F in>
99%
(154
)Optical
pumping
F in¼
99%
(74)
Optical
pumping
F in>
99%
(155
)Exciton
ionization
Spin-selective
tunn
eling(192
,193
,21
0),a
diab
atic
ramping
togrou
ndstateof
nuclearfieldp
Pauliexclusion
(126
)Pa
ulispinblocka
dem
n.a.
(single-ho
leregimeno
tyet
reached)
Scalab
ility
Scalingseem
schalleng
ing
Seem
sscalab
le(185
)[e.g.,viafloa
ting
gates(237
)]Seem
sscalab
le[e.g.,viafloa
ting
gates(237
)]
a For
each
ofthesystem
sdiscussedin
thetext,the
tablesummarizes
thelong
estlifetim
es,the
shortestop
erationtimes,the
high
estreado
utfidelities(visibilities),an
dthehigh
estinitializationfidelities
repo
rted
sofarin
experiments.Informationon
establishedschemes
forread
outa
ndinitializationisprov
ided,along
witharating
onscalab
ility.A
llsing
le-qub
itop
erationtimes
correspo
ndto
rota-
tion
sof
p(abo
utthezan
dxax
is,respectively)
ontheBloch
sphere.F
oraqu
bitwitheigenstatesj0æ
andj1æ
,tZrefers
toop
erations
oftype
ðj0æþ
j1æÞ=
ffiffiffi 2p→
ðj0æ�
j1æÞ=
ffiffiffi 2p,w
hereas
t Xrefers
torotation
softyp
ej0æ
→j1æ
.Two-qu
bitg
ates
arecharacterizedby
theSW
APtimet S
W,d
escribingop
erations
oftype
j01æ→
j10æ.The
ratioT2/top,w
here
t opisthelong
esto
fthe
threeop
erationtimes,
givesan
estimateforthenu
mberof
qubitg
ates
thesystem
canbe
passed
throug
hbefore
coherenceislost.R
eferring
tostan
dard
errorcorrection
schemes,thisvalueshou
ldexceed
∼10
4forfault-
tolerant
quan
tumcompu
tation
tobe
implem
entable.Using
thesurfacecode,valuesa
bove
∼10
2may
alread
ybe
sufficient.E
xperim
entson
self-assem
bled
QDsh
avepredom
inan
tlybeen
carriedou
tin
(Foo
tnotes
continued)
64 Kloeffel ∙ Loss
Ann
u. R
ev. C
onde
ns. M
atte
r Ph
ys. 2
013.
4:51
-81.
Dow
nloa
ded
from
ww
w.a
nnua
lrev
iew
s.or
gby
Lun
d U
nive
rsity
Lib
rari
es, H
ead
Off
ice
on 0
5/02
/13.
For
per
sona
l use
onl
y.
(In)GaA
s.Unlessstatedotherw
ise,GaA
shas
been
theho
stmaterialfor
gate-defined
QDsintw
o-dimension
alelectron
gases(2D
EGs).T
heresultslistedforn
anow
ireQDsh
avebeen
achieved
inInAs
(electrons)and
Ge/Sicore/shell(holes)n
anow
ires.W
eno
tethattheexperimentalcon
dition
s,such
asexternallyap
pliedmagneticfields,clearlydifferforsom
eof
thelistedvaluesan
dschemes.Finally,
wewishto
emph
asizethat
furtherim
prov
ements
might
alread
yha
vebeen
achieved
that
wewereno
taw
areof
whenwriting
thisreview
.Abb
reviation:
n.a.,no
tyetav
ailable.
bMeasuredforsing
leelectron
sin
ana
rrow
ednu
clearspin
bath
(105
)an
dfortw
o-electron
states
inQD
molecules
withredu
cedsensitivityto
electrical
noise(170
),bo
thviacoherent
popu
lation
trap
ping
.W
itho
utpreparation,
T� 2∼0:5�10
ns(see
Section4.1).
c From
Reference
99.M
easuredthroug
hcoherent
popu
lation
trap
ping
.Other
experiments
revealed
T� 2¼
2�21
nsattributed
toelectrical
noise(158
,159
).dFrom
Reference
113.
Achievedby
narrow
ingthenu
clearspin
bath.W
itho
utna
rrow
ing,
T� 2∼10
ns(113
,126
,20
6).
e From
Reference
212.
Hyp
erfine-ind
uced.
f WhileReference
127getsclose,wearecurrentlyno
tawareof
aRam
sey-type
experimentw
here
coherent
rotation
sab
outthe
Bloch
sphere
zax
isha
veexplicitlybeen
demon
stratedas
afunction
oftime.
Thu
sno
valueislisted.
How
ever,t
Zshou
ldbe
short,on
theorderof
0.1ns
assumingamagneticfieldof
1Tan
dg¼
�0.44as
inbu
lkGaA
s.g From
Reference
195.
SWAPga
tesforS-T0qu
bits
have
notyetbeen
implem
ented.
Wethereforelistthedu
ration
t ccpfof
acharge-state
cond
itiona
lph
aseflip.
hIn
Reference
57,rotations
abou
tan
arbitraryax
isin
thex-yplan
eof
theBloch
sphere
arerepo
rted
instead,
controlledviatheph
aseof
theap
pliedmicrowavepu
lse.
i From
Reference
125.
rf-Q
PC:radio-frequencyqu
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65www.annualreviews.org � Spin-Based Quantum Computing in Quantum Dots
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When the first proposal for electron spins in QDs for quantum computation were proposed, the
experimental capabilities for efficient implementation was not encouraging. Gate-controlled QDs
within 2DEGs were limited to around 30 or more confined electrons each, and techniques for
single-qubit manipulation and readout were not available (Sacharajda AS 2011). Decoherence
from interactions with the environment was also considered as an almost insurmountable obstacle
in the early days of the proposal. Luckily, within the past decade, this situation has changed
dramatically, owing to continuous experimental and theoretical progress.
It has now been shown that QDs are routinely controlled down to the last electron (hole), owing
to a clever gate design based on plunger gates (Ciorga et al. 2000, Sacharajda AS 2011, Hanson
et al. 2007) and various schemes have been applied for both qubit initialization and readout.
For high-fidelity quantum computation, reducing the occupation number of QDs to the minimum
is desirable. Also larger fillings with a well-defined spin-1/2 ground state are useful (Meier et al.).
Efficient single- and two-qubit gates have also been demonstrated, which allow for universal quan-
tum computing when combined.
One challenge which still exisits is achieving long decoherence time. The achieved gating times
are much shorter than measured lifetimes, and it seems that one will soon be able to overcome
decoherence to the required extent.
While the field is very advanced for the workhorse systems such as lateral GaAs QDs or self
assembled (In)GaAs QDs, rapid progress is also being made in the quest for alternative systems
with further optimized performance.
First, this includes switching to different host materials. For instance, Ge and Si can be grown
nuclear-spin-free, and required gradients in the Zeeman field may be induced via micromagnets.
Second, both electron- and hole-spin qubits are under investigation, exploiting the different prop-
erties of conduction and valence bands, respectively. Finally, promising results are obtained from
new system geometries, particularly nanowire QDs.
Future tasks can probably be divided into three categories.
1. Studying new quantum computing protocols (such as the surface code), which put very low
requirements on the physical qubits.
2. Further optimization of the individual components listed in Table [1]. For instance, longer
lifetimes are certainly desired, as are high-quality qubit gates with even shorter operation
times. However, as decoherence no longer seems to present the limiting issue, particular
focus should also be put on implementing schemes for highly reliable, fast, and scalable
qubit readout (initialization) in each of the systems.
14
3. Because the results in Table 1 are usually based on different experimental conditions, the
third category consists of merging all required elements into one scalable device, without
the need for excellent performance. Such a complete spin-qubit processor should combine
individual single-qubit rotations about arbitrary axes, a controlled (entangling) two-qubit
operation, initialization into a precisely known state, and single-shot readout of each qubit.
While [2] presents an important step toward this unit, prototypes of a complete spin-qubit
processor could present the basis for continuous optimization.
Based on the impressive progress achieved within the past decade, one can cautiously be optimistic
that a large-scale quantum computer can indeed be realized.
References
[1] Dieter Bimberg. Semiconductor Nanostructures. Springer, 2008. ISBN 978-3-540-77898-1.
[2] R. Brunner, Y.-S. Shin, T. Obata, M. Pioro-Ladrière, T. Kubo, K. Yoshida, T. Taniyama,
Y. Tokura, and S. Tarucha. Two-qubit gate of combined single-spin rotation and inter-
dot spin exchange in a double quantum dot. Phys. Rev. Lett., 107:146801, Sep 2011. doi:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.146801. URL http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.
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[3] David P. DiVincenzo. The Physical Implementation of Quantum Computation. arXiv, 2008.
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16