Coherent optical coupling to surface acoustic wave devices.

Surface acoustic waves (SAW) and associated devices are ideal for sensing, metrology, and hybrid quantum devices. While the advances demonstrated to date are largely based on electromechanical coupling, a robust and customizable coherent optical coupling would unlock mature and powerful cavity optomechanical control techniques and an efficient optical pathway for long-distance quantum links. Here we demonstrate direct and robust coherent optical coupling to Gaussian surface acoustic wave cavities with small mode volumes and high quality factors (>105 measured here) through a Brillouin-like optomechanical interaction. High-frequency SAW cavities designed with curved metallic acoustic reflectors deposited on crystalline substrates are efficiently optically accessed along piezo-active directions, as well as non-piezo-active (electromechanically inaccessible) directions. The precise optical technique uniquely enables controlled analysis of dissipation mechanisms as well as detailed transverse spatial mode spectroscopy. These advantages combined with simple fabrication, large power handling, and strong coupling to quantum systems make SAW optomechanical platforms particularly attractive for sensing, material science, and hybrid quantum systems.

Charge-noise spectroscopy of Si/SiGe quantum dots via dynamically-decoupled exchange oscillations.

Electron spins in silicon quantum dots are promising qubits due to their long coherence times, scalable fabrication, and potential for all-electrical control. However, charge noise in the host semiconductor presents a major obstacle to achieving high-fidelity single- and two-qubit gates in these devices. In this work, we measure the charge-noise spectrum of a Si/SiGe singlet-triplet qubit over nearly 12 decades in frequency using a combination of methods, including dynamically-decoupled exchange oscillations with up to 512 π pulses during the qubit evolution. The charge noise is colored across the entire frequency range of our measurements, although the spectral exponent changes with frequency. Moreover, the charge-noise spectrum inferred from conductance measurements of a proximal sensor quantum dot agrees with that inferred from coherent oscillations of the singlet-triplet qubit, suggesting that simple transport measurements can accurately characterize the charge noise over a wide frequency range in Si/SiGe quantum dots.

Floquet-enhanced spin swaps.

The transfer of information between quantum systems is essential for quantum communication and computation. In quantum computers, high connectivity between qubits can improve the efficiency of algorithms, assist in error correction, and enable high-fidelity readout. However, as with all quantum gates, operations to transfer information between qubits can suffer from errors associated with spurious interactions and disorder between qubits, among other things. Here, we harness interactions and disorder between qubits to improve a swap operation for spin eigenstates in semiconductor gate-defined quantum-dot spins. We use a system of four electron spins, which we configure as two exchange-coupled singlet-triplet qubits. Our approach, which relies on the physics underlying discrete time crystals, enhances the quality factor of spin-eigenstate swaps by up to an order of magnitude. Our results show how interactions and disorder in multi-qubit systems can stabilize non-trivial quantum operations and suggest potential uses for non-equilibrium quantum phenomena, like time crystals, in quantum information processing applications. Our results also confirm the long-predicted emergence of effective Ising interactions between exchange-coupled singlet-triplet qubits.

Adiabatic quantum state transfer in a semiconductor quantum-dot spin chain.

Semiconductor quantum-dot spin qubits are a promising platform for quantum computation, because they are scalable and possess long coherence times. In order to realize this full potential, however, high-fidelity information transfer mechanisms are required for quantum error correction and efficient algorithms. Here, we present evidence of adiabatic quantum-state transfer in a chain of semiconductor quantum-dot electron spins. By adiabatically modifying exchange couplings, we transfer single- and two-spin states between distant electrons in less than 127 ns. We also show that this method can be cascaded for spin-state transfer in long spin chains. Based on simulations, we estimate that the probability to correctly transfer single-spin eigenstates and two-spin singlet states can exceed 0.95 for the experimental parameters studied here. In the future, state and process tomography will be required to verify the transfer of arbitrary single qubit states with a fidelity exceeding the classical bound. Adiabatic quantum-state transfer is robust to noise and pulse-timing errors. This method will be useful for initialization, state distribution, and readout in large spin-qubit arrays for gate-based quantum computing. It also opens up the possibility of universal adiabatic quantum computing in semiconductor quantum-dot spin qubits.

Long-Distance Superexchange between Semiconductor Quantum-Dot Electron Spins.

Because of their long coherence times and potential for scalability, semiconductor quantum-dot spin qubits hold great promise for quantum information processing. However, maintaining high connectivity between quantum-dot spin qubits, which favor linear arrays with nearest neighbor coupling, presents a challenge for large-scale quantum computing. In this work, we present evidence for long-distance spin-chain-mediated superexchange coupling between electron spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots. We weakly couple two electron spins to the ends of a two-site spin chain. Depending on the spin state of the chain, we observe oscillations between the distant end spins. We resolve the dynamics of both the end spins and the chain itself, and our measurements agree with simulations. Superexchange is a promising technique to create long-distance coupling between quantum-dot spin qubits.

Conditional teleportation of quantum-dot spin states.

Among the different platforms for quantum information processing, individual electron spins in semiconductor quantum dots stand out for their long coherence times and potential for scalable fabrication. The past years have witnessed substantial progress in the capabilities of spin qubits. However, coupling between distant electron spins, which is required for quantum error correction, presents a challenge, and this goal remains the focus of intense research. Quantum teleportation is a canonical method to transmit qubit states, but it has not been implemented in quantum-dot spin qubits. Here, we present evidence for quantum teleportation of electron spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots. Although we have not performed quantum state tomography to definitively assess the teleportation fidelity, our data are consistent with conditional teleportation of spin eigenstates, entanglement swapping, and gate teleportation. Such evidence for all-matter spin-state teleportation underscores the capabilities of exchange-coupled spin qubits for quantum-information transfer.

Coherent spin-state transfer via Heisenberg exchange.

Quantum information science has the potential to revolutionize modern technology by providing resource-efficient approaches to computing1, communication2 and sensing3. Although the physical qubits in a realistic quantum device will inevitably suffer errors, quantum error correction creates a path to fault-tolerant quantum information processing4. Quantum error correction, however, requires that individual qubits can interact with many other qubits in the processor. Engineering such high connectivity can pose a challenge for platforms such as electron spin qubits5, which naturally favour linear arrays. Here we present an experimental demonstration of the transmission of electron spin states via the Heisenberg exchange interaction in an array of spin qubits. Heisenberg exchange coupling-a direct manifestation of the Pauli exclusion principle, which prevents any two electrons with the same spin state from occupying the same orbital-tends to swap the spin states of neighbouring electrons. By precisely controlling the wavefunction overlap between electrons in a semiconductor quadruple quantum dot array, we generate a series of coherent SWAP operations to transfer both single-spin and entangled states back and forth in the array without moving any electrons. Because the process is scalable to large numbers of qubits, state transfer through Heisenberg exchange will be useful for multi-qubit gates and error correction in spin-based quantum computers.

Quenching of dynamic nuclear polarization by spin-orbit coupling in GaAs quantum dots.

The central-spin problem is a widely studied model of quantum decoherence. Dynamic nuclear polarization occurs in central-spin systems when electronic angular momentum is transferred to nuclear spins and is exploited in quantum information processing for coherent spin manipulation. However, the mechanisms limiting this process remain only partially understood. Here we show that spin-orbit coupling can quench dynamic nuclear polarization in a GaAs quantum dot, because spin conservation is violated in the electron-nuclear system, despite weak spin-orbit coupling in GaAs. Using Landau-Zener sweeps to measure static and dynamic properties of the electron spin-flip probability, we observe that the size of the spin-orbit and hyperfine interactions depends on the magnitude and direction of applied magnetic field. We find that dynamic nuclear polarization is quenched when the spin-orbit contribution exceeds the hyperfine, in agreement with a theoretical model. Our results shed light on the surprisingly strong effect of spin-orbit coupling in central-spin systems.