arXiv subjects

S. N. Coppersmith

Publications and source records attributed to S. N. Coppersmith.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Pulse-gated quantum dot hybrid qubit

A quantum dot hybrid qubit formed from three electrons in a double quantum dot has the potential for great speed, due to presence of level crossings where the qubit becomes charge-like. Here, we show how to take full advantage of the level crossings in a pulsed gating scheme, which decomposes the spin qubit into a series of charge transitions. We develop one and two-qubit dc quantum gates that are simpler than the previously proposed ac gates. We obtain closed form solutions for the control sequences and show that these sub-nanosecond gates can achieve high fidelities.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Comparing algorithms for graph isomorphism using discrete- and continuous-time quantum random walks

Berry and Wang [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 83}, 042317 (2011)] show numerically that a discrete-time quantum random walk of two noninteracting particles is able to distinguish some non-isomorphic strongly regular graphs from the same family. Here we analytically demonstrate how it is possible for these walks to distinguish such graphs, while continuous-time quantum walks of two noninteracting particles cannot. We show analytically and numerically that even single-particle discrete-time quantum random walks can distinguish some strongly regular graphs, though not as many as two-particle noninteracting discrete-time walks. Additionally, we demonstrate how, given the same quantum random walk, subtle differences in the graph certificate construction algorithm can nontrivially impact the walk's distinguishing power. We also show that no continuous-time walk of a fixed number of particles can distinguish all strongly regular graphs when used in conjunction with any of the graph certificates we consider. We extend this constraint to discrete-time walks of fixed numbers of noninteracting particles for one kind of graph certificate; it remains an open question as to whether or not this constraint applies to the other graph certificates we consider.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Non-interacting multi-particle quantum random walks applied to the graph isomorphism problem for strongly regular graphs

We investigate the quantum dynamics of particles on graphs ("quantum random walks"), with the aim of developing quantum algorithms for determining if two graphs are isomorphic (related to each other by a relabeling of vertices). We focus on quantum random walks of multiple non-interacting particles on strongly regular graphs (SRGs), a class of graphs with high symmetry that is known to have pairs of graphs that are hard to distinguish. Previous work has already demonstrated analytically that two-particle non-interacting quantum walks cannot distinguish non-isomorphic SRGs of the same family. Here, we demonstrate numerically that three-particle non-interacting quantum walks have significant, but not universal, distinguishing power for pairs of SRGs, proving a fundamental difference between the distinguishing power of two-particle and three-particle non-interacting walks. We analytically show why this distinguishing power is possible, whereas it is forbidden for two-particle non-interacting walks. Based on sampling of SRGs with up to 64 vertices, we find no difference in the distinguishing power of bosonic and fermionic walks. In addition, we find that the four-fermion non-interacting walk has greater distinguishing power than the three-particle walks on SRGs, showing that increasing particle number increases distinguishing power. However, we also analytically show that no non-interacting walk with a fixed number of particles can distinguish all SRGs, thus demonstrating a potential fundamental difference between the distinguishing power of interacting and noninteracting walks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Two-electron dephasing in single Si and GaAs quantum dots

We study the dephasing of two-electron states in a single quantum dot in both GaAs and Si. We investigate dephasing induced by electron-phonon coupling and by charge noise analytically for pure orbital excitations in GaAs and Si, as well as for pure valley excitations in Si. In GaAs, polar optical phonons give rise to the most important contribution, leading to a typical dephasing rate of ~5.9 GHz. For Si, intervalley optical phonons lead to a typical dephasing rate of ~140 kHz for orbital excitations and ~1.1 MHz for valley excitations. For harmonic, disorder-free quantum dots, charge noise is highly suppressed for both orbital and valley excitations, since neither has an appreciable dipole moment to couple to electric field variations from charge fluctuators. However, both anharmonicity and disorder break the symmetry of the system, which can lead to increased dipole moments and therefore faster dephasing rates.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Tunable singlet-triplet splitting in a few-electron Si/SiGe quantum dot

We measure the excited-state spectrum of a Si/SiGe quantum dot as a function of in-plane magnetic field, and we identify the spin of the lowest three eigenstates in an effective two-electron regime. The singlet-triplet splitting is an essential parameter describing spin qubits, and we extract this splitting from the data. We find it to be tunable by lateral displacement of the dot, which is realized by changing two gate voltages on opposite sides of the device. We present calculations showing the data are consistent with a spectrum in which the first excited state of the dot is a valley-orbit state.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Single-shot measurement of triplet-singlet relaxation in a Si/SiGe double quantum dot

We investigate the lifetime of two-electron spin states in a few-electron Si/SiGe double dot. At the transition between the (1,1) and (0,2) charge occupations, Pauli spin blockade provides a readout mechanism for the spin state. We use the statistics of repeated single-shot measurements to extract the lifetimes of multiple states simultaneously. At zero magnetic field, we find that all three triplet states have equal lifetimes, as expected, and this time is ~10 ms. At non-zero field, the T0 lifetime is unchanged, whereas the T- lifetime increases monotonically with field, reaching 3 seconds at 1 T.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

A fast "hybrid" silicon double quantum dot qubit

We propose a quantum dot qubit architecture that has an attractive combination of speed and fabrication simplicity. It consists of a double quantum dot with one electron in one dot and two electrons in the other. The qubit itself is a set of two states with total spin quantum numbers $S^2=3/4$ ($S=\half$) and $S_z = -\half$, with the two different states being singlet and triplet in the doubly occupied dot. The architecture is relatively simple to fabricate, a universal set of fast operations can be implemented electrically, and the system has potentially long decoherence times. These are all extremely attractive properties for use in quantum information processing devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Single-shot measurement and tunnel-rate spectroscopy of a Si/SiGe few-electron quantum dot

We investigate the tunnel rates and energies of excited states of small numbers of electrons in a quantum dot fabricated in a Si/SiGe heterostructure. Tunnel rates for loading and unloading electrons are found to be strongly energy dependent, and they vary significantly between different excited states. We show that this phenomenon enables charge sensing measurements of the average electron occupation that are analogous to Coulomb diamonds. Excited-state energies can be read directly from the plot, and we develop a rate model that enables a quantitative understanding of the relative sizes of different electron tunnel rates.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Unconventional Transport in the "Hole" Regime of a Si Double Quantum Dot

Studies of electronic charge transport through semiconductor double quantum dots rely on a conventional "hole" model of transport in the three-electron regime. We show that experimental measurements of charge transport through a Si double quantum dot in this regime cannot be fully explained using the conventional picture. Using a Hartree-Fock (HF) formalism and relevant HF energy parameters extracted from transport data in the multiple-electron regime, we identify a novel spin-flip cotunneling process that lifts a singlet blockade.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Cooling of cryogenic electron bilayers via the Coulomb interaction

Heat dissipation in current-carrying cryogenic nanostructures is problematic because the phonon density of states decreases strongly as energy decreases. We show that the Coulomb interaction can prove a valuable resource for carrier cooling via coupling to a nearby, cold electron reservoir. Specifically, we consider the geometry of an electron bilayer in a silicon-based heterostructure, and analyze the power transfer. We show that across a range of temperatures, separations, and sheet densities, the electron-electron interaction dominates the phonon heat-dissipation modes as the main cooling mechanism. Coulomb cooling is most effective at low densities, when phonon cooling is least effective in silicon, making it especially relevant for experiments attempting to perform coherent manipulations of single spins.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Pauli spin blockade and lifetime-enhanced transport in a Si/SiGe double quantum dot

We analyze electron transport data through a Si/SiGe double quantum dot in terms of spin blockade and lifetime-enhanced transport (LET), which is transport through excited states that is enabled by long spin relaxation times. We present a series of low-bias voltage measurements showing the sudden appearance of a strong tail of current that we argue is an unambiguous signature of LET appearing when the bias voltage becomes greater than the singlet-triplet splitting for the (2,0) electron state. We present eight independent data sets, four in the forward bias (spin-blockade) regime and four in the reverse bias (lifetime-enhanced transport) regime, and show that all eight data sets can be fit to one consistent set of parameters. We also perform a detailed analysis of the reverse bias (LET) regime, using transport rate equations that include both singlet and triplet transport channels. The model also includes the energy dependent tunneling of electrons across the quantum barriers, and resonant and inelastic tunneling effects. In this way, we obtain excellent fits to the experimental data, and we obtain quantitative estimates for the tunneling rates and transport currents throughout the reverse bias regime. We provide a physical understanding of the different blockade regimes and present detailed predictions for the conditions under which LET may be observed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Tunable spin-selective loading of a silicon spin qubit

The remarkable properties of silicon have made it the central material for the fabrication of current microelectronic devices. Silicon's fundamental properties also make it an attractive option for the development of devices for spintronics and quantum information processing. The ability to manipulate and measure spins of single electrons is crucial for these applications. Here we report the manipulation and measurement of a single spin in a quantum dot fabricated in a silicon/silicon-germanium heterostructure. We demonstrate that the rate of loading of electrons into the device can be tuned over an order of magnitude using a gate voltage, that the spin state of the loaded electron depends systematically on the loading voltage level, and that this tunability arises because electron spins can be loaded through excited orbital states of the quantum dot. The longitudinal spin relaxation time T1 is measured using single-shot pulsed techniques and found to be ~3 seconds at a field of 1.85 Tesla. The demonstration of single spin measurement as well as a long spin relaxation time and tunability of the loading are all favorable properties for spintronics and quantum information processing applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Valley splitting in a Si/SiGe quantum point contact

We present the theory and measurement of valley splitting in a quantum point contact (QPC) in a modulation doped Si/SiGe heterostructure. Our measurements are performed on a submicron Schottky-gated device. An effective mass theory is developed for a QPC formed in a quantum well, grown on a miscut substrate. Both theory and experiments include a perpendicular magnetic field. Our results indicate that both QPC and magnetic confinement can enhance the valley splitting by reducing the spatial extent of the electronic wavefunction. Consequently, the valley splitting can be much larger than the spin splitting for small magnetic fields. We also observe different valley splittings for different transverse modes in the QPC, supporting the notion that when steps are present at the quantum well interface, the spatial extent of the wavefunction plays a dominant role in determining the valley splitting.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Theory of valley-orbit coupling in a Si/SiGe quantum dot

Electron states are studied for quantum dots in a strained Si quantum well, taking into account both valley and orbital physics. Realistic geometries are considered, including circular and elliptical dot shapes, parallel and perpendicular magnetic fields, and (most importantly for valley coupling) the small local tilt of the quantum well interface away from the crystallographic axes. In absence of a tilt, valley splitting occurs only between pairs of states with the same orbital quantum numbers. However, tilting is ubiquitous in conventional silicon heterostructures, leading to valley-orbit coupling. In this context, "valley splitting" is no longer a well defined concept, and the quantity of merit for qubit applications becomes the ground state gap. For typical dots used as qubits, a rich energy spectrum emerges, as a function of magnetic field, tilt angle, and orbital quantum number. Numerical and analytical solutions are obtained for the ground state gap and for the mixing fraction between the ground and excited states. This mixing can lead to valley scattering, decoherence, and leakage for Si spin qubits.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Fast tunnel rates in Si/SiGe one-electron single and double quantum dots

We report the fabrication and measurement of one-electron single and double quantum dots with fast tunnel rates in a Si/SiGe heterostructure. Achieving fast tunnel rates in few-electron dots can be challenging, in part due to the large electron effective mass in Si. Using charge sensing, we identify signatures of tunnel rates in and out of the dot that are fast or slow compared to the measurement rate. Such signatures provide a means to calibrate the absolute electron number and verify single electron occupation. Pulsed gate voltage measurements are used to validate the approach.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Two-particle quantum walks applied to the graph isomorphism problem

We show that the quantum dynamics of interacting and noninteracting quantum particles are fundamentally different in the context of solving a particular computational problem. Specifically, we consider the graph isomorphism problem, in which one wishes to determine whether two graphs are isomorphic (related to each other by a relabeling of the graph vertices), and focus on a class of graphs with particularly high symmetry called strongly regular graphs (SRG's). We study the Green's functions that characterize the dynamical evolution single-particle and two-particle quantum walks on pairs of non-isomorphic SRG's and show that interacting particles can distinguish non-isomorphic graphs that noninteracting particles cannot. We obtain the following specific results: (1) We prove that quantum walks of two noninteracting particles, Fermions or Bosons, cannot distinguish certain pairs of non-isomorphic SRG's. (2) We demonstrate numerically that two interacting Bosons are more powerful than single particles and two noninteracting particles, in that quantum walks of interacting bosons distinguish all non-isomorphic pairs of SRGs that we examined. By utilizing high-throughput computing to perform over 500 million direct comparisons between evolution operators, we checked all tabulated pairs of non-isomorphic SRGs, including graphs with up to 64 vertices. (3) By performing a short-time expansion of the evolution operator, we derive distinguishing operators that provide analytic insight into the power of the interacting two-particle quantum walk.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Charge sensing and controllable tunnel coupling in a Si/SiGe double quantum dot

We report integrated charge sensing measurements on a Si/SiGe double quantum dot. The quantum dot is shown to be tunable from a single, large dot to a well-isolated double dot. Charge sensing measurements enable the extraction of the tunnel coupling, t, between the quantum dots as a function of the voltage on the top gates defining the device. Control of the voltage on a single such gate tunes the barrier separating the two dots. The measured tunnel coupling is an exponential function of the gate voltage. The ability to control t is an important step towards controlling spin qubits in silicon quantum dots.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Theoretical characterization of a model of aragonite crystal orientation in red abalone nacre

Nacre, commonly known as mother-of-pearl, is a remarkable biomineral that in red abalone consists of layers of 400-nm thick aragonite crystalline tablets confined by organic matrix sheets, with the $(001)$ crystal axes of the aragonite tablets oriented to within $\pm$ 12 degrees from the normal to the layer planes. Recent experiments demonstrate that this orientational order develops over a distance of tens of layers from the prismatic boundary at which nacre formation begins. Our previous simulations of a model in which the order develops because of differential tablet growth rates (oriented tablets growing faster than misoriented ones) yield patterns of tablets that agree qualitatively and quantitatively with the experimental measurements. This paper presents an analytical treatment of this model, focusing on how the dynamical development and eventual degree of order depend on model parameters. Dynamical equations for the probability distributions governing tablet orientations are introduced whose form can be determined from symmetry considerations and for which substantial analytic progress can be made. Numerical simulations are performed to relate the parameters used in the analytic theory to those in the microscopic growth model. The analytic theory demonstrates that the dynamical mechanism is able to achieve a much higher degree of order than naive estimates would indicate.

cond-mat.soft↗