Silicon/silicon-germanium quantum dot spin qubits.

摘要

Gate-defined quantum dots are tunable devices that are capable of trapping individual electrons. This thesis presents measurements of gate-defined quantum dots formed in Si/SiGe semiconductor heterostuctures. The motivation for this work is the development of a solid state electron spin qubit for quantum information processing. The fundamental properties of silicon make it an attractive option for spin qubit development, because electron spins are weakly coupled to the material. In particular, the coherence time for electron spins in silicon is expected to be long because of relatively weak spin-orbit coupling and the natural abundance of 28Si, a spin-zero nuclear isotope.;The results presented in this thesis demonstrate significant advances in the manipulation and measurement of electrons in Si/SiGe quantum dots, including the first demonstration of a single electron quantum dot. An integrated quantum point contact is utilized as a local sensor to detect charge transitions on the neighboring quantum dot and to determine the absolute number of electrons on the dot.;Gated control of the dot tunnel barriers enables tuning of the tunnel coupling to the leads and to other dots. Careful tuning of the tunnel rate to the leads in combination with fast, pulsed-gate manipulation of individual electrons enables a spectroscopy technique to identify electronic excited states. Using this technique, the Zeeman split spin qubit levels were observed. A 3-level voltage pulse sequence was utilized to perform single-shot readout of the spin state of individual electrons, to demonstrate tunable spin-selective loading, and to measure the spin relaxation time T1 .;Double quantum dots are important for achieving two-qubit operations. Here, charge sensing measurements on a double dot are demonstrated. Analysis of the interdot transfer of a single electron is used to measure the tunnel coupling between the dots, and control of a single gate voltage is used to tune this coupling by over an order of magnitude. Transport measurements through a double quantum dot demonstrate two spin-dependent effects: spin blockade and a new effect, lifetime-enhanced transport, in which current flows predominately through long-lived triplet spin states.