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Silicon acoustic spin qubits for quantum computing

Silicon acoustic spin qubits for quantum computing

Technology News |
By Nick Flaherty



A European consortium is developing an end-to-end system for quantum computing and sensing using acoustic spin qubits built in commercial silicon.

The EQUSPACE project has received €3.2m to create a long-term future for silicon-based donor spin qubits in Europe. The platform aims to connect the qubits via sound waves in vibrating structures rather than radio waves which are used for other spin qubit designs. Lasers and single-electron transistors will also be used to electrically read out the result at the end of the quantum mechanical calculation.

The project, which starts this February, is developing all the important aspects of a quantum platform: the control and readout of the result, the spin-spin coupling between qubits, and the transmission of quantum information between computing units on the chip. The final outcome could be a complete quantum information platform that includes qubits, interconnects and scalable control and readout electronics.

The consortium brings together five partners from three European countries, and it will be led by the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. SemiQon joins the project as the only private company alongside the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in Germany, VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland and the NOW Institute in the Netherlands.

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“The long-term goal is to enable the use of the qubits in quantum computing and quantum sensing, while creating a Europe-wide ecosystem for the quantum technology platform,” said Professor Juha Muhonen, the coordinator of the project.

The project is one of 45 out of 110 funded by the Pathfinder Open funding scheme from the European Innovation Council (EIC).

“EQUSPACE is a great example of how new innovations can be realized by combining different quantum technologies,” said Mika Prunnila of SemiQon. “The project brings together experts from the fields dealing with quantum dots, impurity atom related qubits, optomechanics, and atomic-scale modification of silicon. At the same time, it links together a university, a start-up company as well as research institutes in three different European countries.”

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A team from the Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research at HZDR will contribute its expertise in the atomic modification of silicon for quantum applications and further develop the materials science methods required to build the acoustic spin qubits in silicon. 

The team will use a focused ion beam to locally enrich ultra-pure silicon with the isotope silicon-28, whose nuclei have no spin that could interact with magnetic fields or the spin of other particles and thus interfere with the calculations. “Through the targeted enrichment with special isotopes, the quantum state remains stable for longer timespans. This allows more complex quantum operations, and the platform could thus outperform classical computers and other quantum computer systems in the future,” says HZDR project manager Dr. Nico Klingner.

In addition to isotope purification, the team is developing the single-ion implantation of donor atoms. The aim is to implant individual bismuth atoms whose spin forms a two-state system that can point either “up” or “down”. The special feature of qubits is that at very low temperatures, both states can exist simultaneously in superpositions: the spin can be in a combination of the “up” and “down” states at the same time. This allows quantum computers to perform many calculations in parallel.

One of the main advantages of donor spin qubits is the stability, particularly compared to superconducting circuits. The spin in a donor atom is less susceptible to perturbations from the environment, so the quantum state can be maintained over longer periods of time.

“These contributions from HZDR, especially in the areas of isotope purification, implantation and strain engineering in semiconductors, are fundamental to the success of the EQUSPACE project,” said Muhonen at JYU.

www.jyu.fi; www.semiqon.com; www.amolf.nl; www.hzdr.de

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