Complete quantum control of exciton qubits bound to isoelectronic centres

In recent years, impressive demonstrations related to quantum information processing have been realized. The scalability of quantum interactions between arbitrary qubits within an array remains however a significant hurdle to the practical realization of a quantum computer. Among the proposed ideas to achieve fully scalable quantum processing, the use of photons is appealing because they can mediate long-range quantum interactions and could serve as buses to build quantum networks. Quantum dots or nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond can be coupled to light, but the former system lacks optical homogeneity while the latter suffers from a low dipole moment, rendering their large-scale interconnection challenging. Here, through the complete quantum control of exciton qubits, we demonstrate that nitrogen isoelectronic centres in GaAs combine both the uniformity and predictability of atomic defects and the dipole moment of semiconductor quantum dots. This establishes isoelectronic centres as a promising platform for quantum information processing

Quantum interface of an electron and a nuclear ensemble.

Coherent excitation of an ensemble of quantum objects underpins quantum many-body phenomena and offers the opportunity to realize a memory that stores quantum information. Thus far, a deterministic and coherent interface between a spin qubit and such an ensemble has remained elusive. In this study, we first used an electron to cool the mesoscopic nuclear spin ensemble of a semiconductor quantum dot to the nuclear sideband-resolved regime. We then implemented an all-optical approach to access individual quantized electronic-nuclear spin transitions. Lastly, we performed coherent optical rotations of a single collective nuclear spin excitation-a spin wave. These results constitute the building blocks of a dedicated local memory per quantum-dot spin qubit and promise a solid-state platform for quantum-state engineering of isolated many-body systems

Improving a Solid-State Qubit through an Engineered Mesoscopic Environment.

A controlled quantum system can alter its environment by feedback, leading to reduced-entropy states of the environment and to improved system coherence. Here, using a quantum-dot electron spin as a control and probe, we prepare the quantum-dot nuclei under the feedback of coherent population trapping and observe their evolution from a thermal to a reduced-entropy state, with the immediate consequence of extended qubit coherence. Via Ramsey interferometry on the electron spin, we directly access the nuclear distribution following its preparation and measure the emergence and decay of correlations within the nuclear ensemble. Under optimal feedback, the inhomogeneous dephasing time of the electron, T_{2}^{*}, is extended by an order of magnitude to 39 ns. Our results can be readily exploited in quantum information protocols utilizing spin-photon entanglement and represent a step towards creating quantum many-body states in a mesoscopic nuclear-spin ensemble.We acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council ERC Consolidator Grant Agreement No. 617985 and the EPSRC National Quantum Technologies Program NQIT EP/M013243/1. G.E-M. acknowledges financial support from NSERC

Optical spin locking of a solid-state qubit

Abstract: Quantum control of solid-state spin qubits typically involves pulses in the microwave domain, drawing from the well-developed toolbox of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Driving a solid-state spin by optical means offers a high-speed alternative, which in the presence of limited spin coherence makes it the preferred approach for high-fidelity quantum control. Bringing the full versatility of magnetic spin resonance to the optical domain requires full phase and amplitude control of the optical fields. Here, we imprint a programmable microwave sequence onto a laser field and perform electron spin resonance in a semiconductor quantum dot via a two-photon Raman process. We show that this approach yields full SU(2) spin control with over 98%π-rotation fidelity. We then demonstrate its versatility by implementing a particular multi-axis control sequence, known as spin locking. Combined with electron-nuclear Hartmann–Hahn resonances which we also report in this work, this sequence will enable efficient coherent transfer of a quantum state from the electron spin to the mesoscopic nuclear ensemble

Spin-photon interface and spin-controlled photon switching in a nanobeam waveguide

Access to the electron spin is at the heart of many protocols for integrated and distributed quantum-information processing [1-4]. For instance, interfacing the spin-state of an electron and a photon can be utilized to perform quantum gates between photons [2,5] or to entangle remote spin states [6-9]. Ultimately, a quantum network of entangled spins constitutes a new paradigm in quantum optics [1]. Towards this goal, an integrated spin-photon interface would be a major leap forward. Here we demonstrate an efficient and optically programmable interface between the spin of an electron in a quantum dot and photons in a nanophotonic waveguide. The spin can be deterministically prepared with a fidelity of 96\%. Subsequently the system is used to implement a "single-spin photonic switch", where the spin state of the electron directs the flow of photons through the waveguide. The spin-photon interface may enable on-chip photon-photon gates [2], single-photon transistors [10], and efficient photonic cluster state generation [11]

Optical spin locking of a solid-state qubit

Abstract: Quantum control of solid-state spin qubits typically involves pulses in the microwave domain, drawing from the well-developed toolbox of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Driving a solid-state spin by optical means offers a high-speed alternative, which in the presence of limited spin coherence makes it the preferred approach for high-fidelity quantum control. Bringing the full versatility of magnetic spin resonance to the optical domain requires full phase and amplitude control of the optical fields. Here, we imprint a programmable microwave sequence onto a laser field and perform electron spin resonance in a semiconductor quantum dot via a two-photon Raman process. We show that this approach yields full SU(2) spin control with over 98%π-rotation fidelity. We then demonstrate its versatility by implementing a particular multi-axis control sequence, known as spin locking. Combined with electron-nuclear Hartmann–Hahn resonances which we also report in this work, this sequence will enable efficient coherent transfer of a quantum state from the electron spin to the mesoscopic nuclear ensemble