19 research outputs found
Nagaoka ferromagnetism observed in a quantum dot plaquette
Engineered, highly-controllable quantum systems hold promise as simulators of
emergent physics beyond the capabilities of classical computers. An important
problem in many-body physics is itinerant magnetism, which originates purely
from long-range interactions of free electrons and whose existence in real
systems has been subject to debate for decades. Here we use a quantum simulator
consisting of a four-site square plaquette of quantum dots to demonstrate
Nagaoka ferromagnetism. This form of itinerant magnetism has been rigorously
studied theoretically but has remained unattainable in experiment. We load the
plaquette with three electrons and demonstrate the predicted emergence of
spontaneous ferromagnetic correlations through pairwise measurements of spin.
We find the ferromagnetic ground state is remarkably robust to engineered
disorder in the on-site potentials and can induce a transition to the low-spin
state by changing the plaquette topology to an open chain. This demonstration
of Nagaoka ferromagnetism highlights that quantum simulators can be used to
study physical phenomena that have not yet been observed in any system before.
The work also constitutes an important step towards large-scale quantum dot
simulators of correlated electron systems.Comment: This version: main (8 pages, 6 figures) + supplementary (15 pages, 8
figures
High-fidelity adiabatic inversion of a electron spin qubit in natural silicon
The main limitation to the high-fidelity quantum control of spins in
semiconductors is the presence of strongly fluctuating fields arising from the
nuclear spin bath of the host material. We demonstrate here a substantial
improvement in single-qubit gate fidelities for an electron spin qubit bound to
a P atom in natural silicon, by applying adiabatic inversion instead of
narrow-band pulses. We achieve an inversion fidelity of 97%, and we observe
signatures in the spin resonance spectra and the spin coherence time that are
consistent with the presence of an additional exchange-coupled donor. This work
highlights the effectiveness of adiabatic inversion techniques for spin control
in fluctuating environments.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Bell's inequality violation with spins in silicon
Bell's theorem sets a boundary between the classical and quantum realms, by
providing a strict proof of the existence of entangled quantum states with no
classical counterpart. An experimental violation of Bell's inequality demands
simultaneously high fidelities in the preparation, manipulation and measurement
of multipartite quantum entangled states. For this reason the Bell signal has
been tagged as a single-number benchmark for the performance of quantum
computing devices. Here we demonstrate deterministic, on-demand generation of
two-qubit entangled states of the electron and the nuclear spin of a single
phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon nanoelectronic device. By sequentially
reading the electron and the nucleus, we show that these entangled states
violate the Bell/CHSH inequality with a Bell signal of 2.50(10). An even higher
value of 2.70(9) is obtained by mapping the parity of the two-qubit state onto
the nuclear spin, which allows for high-fidelity quantum non-demolition
measurement (QND) of the parity. Furthermore, we complement the Bell inequality
entanglement witness with full two-qubit state tomography exploiting QND
measurement, which reveals that our prepared states match the target maximally
entangled Bell states with 96\% fidelity. These experiments demonstrate
complete control of the two-qubit Hilbert space of a phosphorus atom, and show
that this system is able to maintain its simultaneously high initialization,
manipulation and measurement fidelities past the single-qubit regime.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, 4 extended data figure
Electrically controlling single spin qubits in a continuous microwave field
Large-scale quantum computers must be built upon quantum bits that are both
highly coherent and locally controllable. We demonstrate the quantum control of
the electron and the nuclear spin of a single 31P atom in silicon, using a
continuous microwave magnetic field together with nanoscale electrostatic
gates. The qubits are tuned into resonance with the microwave field by a local
change in electric field, which induces a Stark shift of the qubit energies.
This method, known as A-gate control, preserves the excellent coherence times
and gate fidelities of isolated spins, and can be extended to arbitrarily many
qubits without requiring multiple microwave sources.Comment: Main paper: 13 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary information: 25 pages,
13 figure
Storing quantum information for 30 seconds in a nanoelectronic device
The spin of an electron or a nucleus in a semiconductor(1) naturally implements the unit of quantum information-the qubit. In addition, because semiconductors are currently used in the electronics industry, developing qubits in semiconductors would be a promising route to realize scalable quantum information devices(2). The solid-state environment, however, may provide deleterious interactions between the qubit and the nuclear spins of surrounding atoms(3), or charge and spin fluctuations arising from defects in oxides and interfaces(4). For materials such as silicon, enrichment of the spin-zero Si-28 isotope drastically reduces spin-bath decoherence(5). Experiments on bulk spin ensembles in Si-28 crystals have indeed demonstrated extraordinary coherence times(6-8). However, it remained unclear whether these would persist at the single-spin level, in gated nanostructures near amorphous interfaces. Here, we present the coherent operation of individual P-31 electron and nuclear spin qubits in a top-gated nanostructure, fabricated on an isotopically engineered Si-28 substrate. The P-31 nuclear spin sets the new benchmark coherence time (>30 s with Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequence) of any single qubit in the solid state and reaches >99.99% control fidelity. The electron spin CPMG coherence time exceeds 0.5 s, and detailed noise spectroscopy(9) indicates that-contrary to widespread belief-it is not limited by the proximity to an interface. Instead, decoherence is probably dominated by thermal and magnetic noise external to the device, and is thus amenable to further improvement