Spin lifetime and charge noise in hot silicon quantum dot qubits
L. Petit, J. M. Boter, H. G. J. Eenink, G. Droulers, M. L. V. Tagliaferri, R. Li, D. P. Franke, K. J. Singh, J. S. Clarke, R. N. Schouten, V. V. Dobrovitski, L.… 展开作者
L. Petit, J. M. Boter, H. G. J. Eenink, G. Droulers, M. L. V. Tagliaferri, R. Li, D. P. Franke, K. J. Singh, J. S. Clarke, R. N. Schouten, V. V. Dobrovitski, L. M. K. Vandersypen, M. Veldhorst
We investigate the magnetic field and temperature dependence of the single-electron spin lifetime in silicon quantum dots and find a lifetime of 2.8 ms at a temperature of 1.1 K. We develop a model based on spin-valley mixing and find that Johnson noise and two-phonon processes limit relaxation at low and high temperature respectively. We also investigate the effect of temperature on charge noise and find a linear dependence up to 4 K. These results contribute to the understanding of relaxation in silicon quantum dots and are promising for qubit operation at elevated temperatures.
We report the observation of Lifetime Enhanced Transport (LET) based on perpendicular valleys in silicon by transport spectroscopy measurements of a two-electron system in a silicon transistor. The LET is manifested as a peculiar current step in the stability diagram due to a forbidden transition between an excited state and any of the lower energy states due perpendicular valley (and spin) configurations, offering an additional current path. By employing a detailed temperature dependence study in combination with a rate equation model, we estimate the lifetime of this particular state to exce…
We study the relaxation of coherent acoustic phonon modes with frequencies up to 500 GHz in ultra-thin free-standing silicon membranes. Using an ultrafast pump-probe technique of asynchronous optical sampling, we observe that the decay time of the first-order dilatational mode decreases significantly from \sim 4.7 ns to 5 ps with decreasing membrane thickness from \sim 194 to 8 nm. The experimental results are compared with theories considering both intrinsic phonon-phonon interactions and extrinsic surface roughness scattering including a wavelength-dependent specularity. Our results provide …
Although silicon is a promising material for quantum computation, the degeneracy of the conduction band minima (valleys) must be lifted with a splitting sufficient to ensure formation of well-defined and long-lived spin qubits. Here we demonstrate that valley separation can be accurately tuned via electrostatic gate control in a metal-oxide-semiconductor quantum dot, providing splittings spanning 0.3 - 0.8 meV. The splitting varies linearly with applied electric field, with a ratio in agreement with atomistic tight-binding predictions. We demonstrate single-shot spin readout and measure the sp…
Extensive irradiation of silicon crystal sensors by high energy particles in e. g. accelerators yield defect clusters of different types. Trapping of electrons and holes result in extended internal electric fields that drive remaining free charges. The question whether these internal electric fields affect the experimental observables, e.g. recombination process and lifetime of free charges is the main focus of this paper. Including the drift and diffusion of electrons and holes we calculate the recombination rate in a cubic sample with a single dipolar cluster of defects. It is shown that the…
Color centers in diamond micro and nano structures are under investigation for a plethora of applications. However, obtaining high quality color centers in small structures is challenging, and little is known about how properties such as spin population lifetimes change during the transition from bulk to micro and nano structures. In this manuscript, we studied various ways to prepare diamond samples containing silicon vacancy centers and measured how population lifetimes of orbital states change in pillars as we varied their dimensions from approximately 1 $μ$m to 120 nm. We also researched t…
The interfacial band structures of multilayer systems play a crucial role for the ultrafast charge and spin carrier dynamics at interfaces. Here, we study the energy- and momentum-dependent quasiparticle lifetimes of excited states of a lead monolayer film on Ag(111) prior and after the adsorption of a monolayer of 3,4,9,10-perylene-tetracarboxylic-dianhydride (PTCDA). Using time-resolved two-photon momentum microscopy, we show that the electron dynamics of the bare Pb/Ag(111) bilayer system is dominated by isotropic intraband scattering processes within the quantum well state as well as inter…
Multiband models with hot spots are of current interest partly because of their relevance for the iron-based superconductors. In these materials, the momentum-dependent scattering off spin fluctuations and the ellipticity of the electron Fermi pockets are responsible for anisotropy of the lifetimes of excitations around the Fermi surface. The deep minima of the lifetimes---the so-called hot spots---have been assumed to contribute little to the transport as is indeed predicted by a simple relaxation-time approach. Calculating forward-scattering corrections to this approximation, we find that th…
Spin blockade occurs when an electron is unable to access an energetically favorable path through a quantum dot due to spin conservation, resulting in a blockade of the current through the dot. Spin blockade is the basis of a number of recent advances in spintronics, including the measurement and the manipulation of individual electron spins. We report measurements of the spin blockade regime in a silicon double quantum dot, revealing a complementary phenomenon: lifetime-enhanced transport. We argue that our observations arise because the decay times for electron spins in silicon are long, ena…
We demonstrate optical spin polarization of the neutrally-charged silicon-vacancy defect in diamond ($\mathrm{SiV^{0}}$), an $S=1$ defect which emits with a zero-phonon line at 946 nm. The spin polarization is found to be most efficient under resonant excitation, but non-zero at below-resonant energies. We measure an ensemble spin coherence time $T_2>100~\mathrm{μs}$ at low-temperature, and a spin relaxation limit of $T_1>25~\mathrm{s}$. Optical spin state initialization around 946 nm allows independent initialization of $\mathrm{SiV^{0}}$ and $\mathrm{NV^{-}}$ within the same optically-addres…
The energy dependence of the relaxation rate of hot electrons due to interaction with the Fermi sea is studied. We consider 2D and 3D systems, quasi-1D quantum wires with multiple transverse bands, as well as single-channel 1D wires. Our analysis includes both spinful and spin-polarized setups, with short-range and Coulomb interactions. We show that, quite generally, the relaxation rate is a non-monotonic function of the electron energy and decays as a power-law at high energies. In other words, ultra-hot electrons regain their coherence with increasing energy. Such a behavior was observed in …
Heterostructures comprising of silicon (Si), molybdenum disulfide (MoS${_2}$) and graphene are investigated with respect to the vertical current conduction mechanism. The measured current-voltage (I-V) characteristics exhibit temperature dependent asymmetric current, indicating thermally activated charge carrier transport. The data is compared and fitted to a current transport model that confirms thermionic emission as the responsible transport mechanism across the devices. Theoretical calculations in combination with the experimental data suggest that the heterojunction barrier from Si to MoS…
As transistor features shrink beyond the 2 nm node, studying and designing for atomic scale effects become essential. Being able to combine conventional CMOS with new atomic scale fabrication routes capable of creating 2D patterns of highly doped phosphorus layers with atomic precision has implications for the future of digital electronics. This work establishes the accelerated lifetime tests of such doped layers, showing that these materials survive high current (>3.0 MA/cm2) and 300$^{\circ}$C for greater than 70 days and are still electrically conductive. The doped layers compare well to fa…
Quantum computation requires many qubits that can be coherently controlled and coupled to each other. Qubits that are defined using lithographic techniques are often argued to be promising platforms for scalability, since they can be implemented using semiconductor fabrication technology. However, leading solid-state approaches function only at temperatures below 100 mK, where cooling power is extremely limited, and this severely impacts the perspective for practical quantum computation. Recent works on spins in silicon have shown steps towards a platform that can be operated at higher tempera…
We experimentally demonstrate DC functionality of graphene-based hot electron transistors, which we call Graphene Base Transistors (GBT). The fabrication scheme is potentially compatible with silicon technology and can be carried out at the wafer scale with standard silicon technology. The state of the GBTs can be switched by a potential applied to the transistor base, which is made of graphene. Transfer characteristics of the GBTs show ON/OFF current ratios exceeding 50.000.
High fidelity entanglement of an on-chip array of spin qubits poses many challenges. Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) can ease some of these challenges by enabling long-ranged entanglement via electric dipole-dipole interactions, microwave photons, or phonons. However, SOC exposes conventional spin qubits to decoherence from electrical noise. Here we propose an acceptor-based spin-orbit qubit in silicon offering long-range entanglement at a sweet spot where the qubit is protected from electrical noise. The qubit relies on quadrupolar SOC with the interface and gate potentials. As required for surface…
We present measurements at millikelvin temperatures of the microwave-frequency acoustic properties of a crystalline silicon nanobeam cavity incorporating a phononic bandgap clamping structure for acoustic confinement. Utilizing pulsed laser light to excite a co-localized optical mode of the nanobeam cavity, we measure the dynamics of cavity acoustic modes with single-phonon sensitivity. Energy ringdown measurements for the fundamental $5$~GHz acoustic mode of the cavity shows an exponential increase in phonon lifetime versus number of periods in the phononic bandgap shield, increasing up to $τ…
Room temperature optically detected magnetic resonance experiments on spin 3/2 Silicon vacancies in 4H-SiC are reported. The $m_s=+1/2\leftrightarrow -1/2$ transition is accessed using a two microwave frequency excitation protocol. The ratio of the Rabi frequencies of the $+3/2 \leftrightarrow +1/2$ and $+1/2\leftrightarrow -1/2$ transitions is measured to be $(0.901\pm 0.013)$. The deviation from $\sqrt{3}/2$ is attributed to small difference in g-factor for different magnetic dipole transitions. Whereas a spin-1/2 system is characterized by a single spin lifetime $T_1$, we experimentally dem…
We determine the spin-lifetime anisotropy of spin-polarized carriers in graphene. In contrast to prior approaches, our method does not require large out-of-plane magnetic fields and thus it is reliable for both low- and high-carrier densities. We first determine the in-plane spin lifetime by conventional spin precession measurements with magnetic fields perpendicular to the graphene plane. Then, to evaluate the out-of-plane spin lifetime, we implement spin precession measurements under oblique magnetic fields that generate an out-of-plane spin population. We find that the spin-lifetime anisotr…
Quantum emitters are an integral component for a broad range of quantum technologies including quantum communication, quantum repeaters, and linear optical quantum computation. Solid-state color centers are promising candidates for scalable quantum optics due to their long coherence time and small inhomogeneous broadening. However, once excited, color centers often decay through phonon-assisted processes, limiting the efficiency of single photon generation and photon mediated entanglement generation. Herein, we demonstrate strong enhancement of spontaneous emission rate of a single silicon-vac…
We calculate the dielectric response of excited crystalline silicon in electron thermal equilibrium by adiabatic time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) to model the response to irradiation by high-intensity laser pulses. The real part of the dielectric function is characterized by the strong negative behavior at low frequencies due to excited electron-hole pairs. The response agrees rather well with the numerical pump-probe calculations which simulate electronic excitations in nonequilibrium phase immediately after the laser pulse irradiation. The thermal response is also compared wi…
A first principles, excited state analysis is carried out to identify ways of producing silicon quantum dots with low excitonic reorganization energy. These focus on the general strategy of either reducing or constraining exciton-phonon coupling, and four approaches are explored. The results can be implemented in quantum dot solids to mitigate polaronic effects and increase the lifetime of coherent excitonic superpositions. It is demonstrated that such designs can also be used to alter the shape of the spectral density for reorganization so as to reduce the rates of both decoherence and dissip…
We study the optical properties of tetravalent vanadium impurities in 4H silicon carbide (4H SiC). Emission from two crystalline sites is observed at wavelengths of 1.28 \mum and 1.33 \mum, with optical lifetimes of 163 ns and 43 ns. Group theory and ab initio density functional supercell calculations enable unequivocal site assignment and shed light on the spectral features of the defects. We conclude with a brief outlook on applications in quantum photonics.
In silicon quantum dots (QDs), at a certain magnetic field commonly referred to as the "hot spot", the electron spin relaxation rate (T_1^(-1)) can be drastically enhanced due to strong spin-valley mixing. Here, we experimentally find that with a valley splitting of 78.2 ${\pm}$ 1.6 $μ$eV, this hot spot in spin relaxation can be suppressed by more than 2 orders of magnitude when the in-plane magnetic field is oriented at an optimal angle, about 9° from the [100] sample plane. This directional anisotropy exhibits a sinusoidal modulation with a 180° periodicity. We explain the magnitude and phas…
