Hans-Joachim Pohl

Room-Temperature Quantum Bit Storage Exceeding 39 Minutes Using Ionized Donors in Silicon-28

Long-Lived Donors Quantum computing in materials such as silicon would simplify integration with existing electronic components; however, the coherence times of such qubits, especially at room temperature, are affected by the interaction with the busy environment of a solid. Eliminating isotopic impurities from the host material improves coherence times, as observed for qubits, based on the nuclear spin of neutral P donors in Si. Saeedi et al. (p. 830) modified this system by using charged P donors instead of neutral ones; by manipulating the states of the donors optically and using dynamical decoupling, the coherence time of the qubits was extended to 3 hours at cryogenic temperatures and 39 minutes at room temperature. Isotopically purified silicon is used to extend the coherence time of qubits based on phosphorus impurities. Quantum memories capable of storing and retrieving coherent information for extended times at room temperature would enable a host of new technologies. Electron and nuclear spin qubits using shallow neutral donors in semiconductors have been studied extensively but are limited to low temperatures (≲10 kelvin); however, the nuclear spins of ionized donors have the potential for high-temperature operation. We used optical methods and dynamical decoupling to realize this potential for an ensemble of phosphorous-31 donors in isotopically purified silicon-28 and observed a room-temperature coherence time of over 39 minutes. We further showed that a coherent spin superposition can be cycled from 4.2 kelvin to room temperature and back, and we report a cryogenic coherence time of 3 hours in the same system.

Quantum information storage for over 180 s using donor spins in a 28si “semiconductor vacuum”

Extending Quantum Memory Practical applications in quantum communication and quantum computation require the building blocks—quantum bits and quantum memory—to be sufficiently robust and long-lived to allow for manipulation and storage (see the Perspective by Boehme and McCarney). Steger et al. (p. 1280) demonstrate that the nuclear spins of 31P impurities in an almost isotopically pure sample of 28Si can have a coherence time of as long as 192 seconds at a temperature of ∼1.7 K. In diamond at room temperature, Maurer et al. (p. 1283) show that a spin-based qubit system comprised of an isotopic impurity (13C) in the vicinity of a color defect (a nitrogen-vacancy center) could be manipulated to have a coherence time exceeding one second. Such lifetimes promise to make spin-based architectures feasible building blocks for quantum information science. An almost isotopically pure sample of 28Si provides a vacuumlike environment for 31P qubits. A quantum computer requires systems that are isolated from their environment, but can be integrated into devices, and whose states can be measured with high accuracy. Nuclear spins in solids promise long coherence lifetimes, but they are difficult to initialize into known states and to detect with high sensitivity. We show how the distinctive optical properties of enriched 28Si enable the use of hyperfine-resolved optical transitions, as previously applied to great effect for isolated atoms and ions in vacuum. Together with efficient Auger photoionization, these resolved hyperfine transitions permit rapid nuclear hyperpolarization and electrical spin-readout. We combine these techniques to detect nuclear magnetic resonance from dilute 31P in the purest available sample of 28Si, at concentrations inaccessible to conventional measurements, measuring a solid-state coherence time of over 180 seconds.

Simultaneous Subsecond Hyperpolarization of the Nuclear and Electron Spins of Phosphorus in Silicon by Optical Pumping of Exciton Transitions

A. Yang, M. Steger, T. Sekiguchi, M. L. W. Thewalt, ∗ T. D. Ladd, K. M. Itoh, H. Riemann, N. V. Abrosimov, P. Becker, and H.-J. Pohl Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6 E. L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305, USA Keio University, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan Institute for Crystal Growth (IKZ), 12489 Berlin, Germany PTB Braunschweig, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany VITCON Projectconsult GmbH, 07745 Jena, Germany (Dated: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters on June 03, 2009)

Photoluminescence of deep defects involving transition metals in Si: New insights from highly enriched 28Si

Deep luminescence centers in Si associated with transition metals have been studied for decades, both as markers for these deleterious contaminants, as well as for the possibility of efficient Si-based light emission. They are among the most ubiquitous luminescence centers observed in Si, and have served as testbeds for elucidating the physics of isoelectronic bound excitons, and for testing ab-initio calculations of defect properties. The greatly improved spectral resolution resulting from the elimination of inhomogeneous isotope broadening in the recently available highly enriched 28Si enabled the extension of the established technique of isotope shifts to the measurement of isotopic fingerprints, which reveal not only the presence of a given element in a luminescence center, but also the number of atoms of that element. This has resulted in many surprises regarding the actual constituents of what were thought to be well-understood deep luminescence centers. Here we summarize the available information f...

Direct observation of the donor nuclear spin in a near-gap bound exciton transition: P31 in highly enriched S28ia)

We report on ultrahigh resolution studies of the bound exciton states associated with the shallow acceptor B and the shallow donor P in highly enriched S28i using a tuneable single frequency laser to perform photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy. The linewidths and fine structure of the transitions, which were too narrow to be resolved previously using an available photoluminescence apparatus, are now fully revealed. The P bound exciton transition shows a complicated additional structure, which the Zeeman spectroscopy demonstrates to be a result of the splitting of the donor ground state by the hyperfine interaction between the spin of the donor electron and that of the P31 nucleus. The P31 nuclear spin populations can thus be determined, and hopefully modified, by optical means. The predominant Auger recombination channel of these bound excitons is used to observe the same resolved hyperfine transitions in the photocurrent spectrum. This demonstrates that donors in specific electronic and nuclear spi...

Fast, low-power manipulation of spin ensembles in superconducting microresonators

We demonstrate the use of high-Q superconducting coplanar waveguide (CPW) microresonators to perform rapid manipulations on a randomly distributed spin ensemble using very low microwave power (400 nW). This power is compatible with dilution refrigerators, making microwave manipulation of spin ensembles feasible for quantum computing applications. We also describe the use of adiabatic microwave pulses to overcome microwave magnetic field (B1) inhomogeneities inherent to CPW resonators. This allows for uniform control over a randomly distributed spin ensemble. Sensitivity data are reported showing a single shot (no signal averaging) sensitivity to 107 spins or 3×104spins/Hz with averaging.

Optically-detected NMR of optically-hyperpolarized 31P neutral donors in 28Si

The electron and nuclear spins of the shallow donor 31P are promising qubit candidates invoked in many proposed Si-based quantum computing schemes. We have recently shown that the near-elimination of inhomogeneous broadening in highly isotopically enriched 28Si enables an optical readout of both the donor electron and nuclear spins by resolving the donor hyperfine splitting in the near-gap donor bound exciton transitions. We have also shown that pumping these same transitions can very quickly produce large electron and nuclear hyperpolarizations at low magnetic fields, where the equilibrium electron and nuclear polarizations are very small. Here we show preliminary results of the measurement of 31P neutral donor NMR parameters using this optical nuclear hyperpolarization mechanism for preparation of the 31P nuclear spin system, followed by optical readout of the resulting nuclear spin population after manipulation with NMR pulse sequences. This allows for the observation of single-shot NMR signals with ve...

A photonic platform for donor spin qubits in silicon

Chalcogen donors in silicon enable a scalable photonic cavity quantum electrodynamics solution for universal quantum computing. Donor spins in silicon are highly competitive qubits for upcoming quantum technologies, offering complementary metal-oxide semiconductor compatibility, coherence (T2) times of minutes to hours, and simultaneous initialization, manipulation, and readout fidelities near ~99.9%. This allows for many quantum error correction protocols, which will be essential for scale-up. However, a proven method of reliably coupling spatially separated donor qubits has yet to be identified. We present a scalable silicon-based platform using the unique optical properties of “deep” chalcogen donors. For the prototypical 77Se+ donor, we measure lower bounds on the transition dipole moment and excited-state lifetime, enabling access to the strong coupling limit of cavity quantum electrodynamics using known silicon photonic resonator technology and integrated silicon photonics. We also report relatively strong photon emission from this same transition. These results unlock clear pathways for silicon-based quantum computing, spin-to-photon conversion, photonic memories, integrated single-photon sources, and all-optical switches.

Hyperfine Stark effect of shallow donors in silicon

This research was funded by the joint EPSRC (EP/I035536) / NSF (DMR-1107606) Materials World Network grant (BWL, GP, JJLM, SAL), EPSRC grant EP/K025562/1 (BWL and JJLM), the European Research Council under the European Communitys Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement No. 279781 (JJLM), partly by the NSF MRSEC grant DMR-0819860 (SAL), the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences grant DE-SC0002140 (RNB). BWL and JJLM thank the Royal Society for a University Research Fellowship.

Conditional control of donor nuclear spins in silicon using Stark shifts

Electric fields can be used to tune donor spins in silicon using the Stark shift, whereby the donor electron wave function is displaced by an electric field, modifying the hyperfine coupling between the electron spin and the donor nuclear spin. We present a technique based on dynamic decoupling of the electron spin to accurately determine the Stark shift, and illustrate this using antimony donors in isotopically purified silicon-28. We then demonstrate two different methods to use a dc electric field combined with an applied resonant radio-frequency (rf) field to conditionally control donor nuclear spins. The first method combines an electric-field induced conditional phase gate with standard rf pulses, and the second one simply detunes the spins off resonance. Finally, we consider different strategies to reduce the effect of electric field inhomogeneities and obtain above 90% process fidelities.