Probing single electrons across 300-mm spin qubit wafers.

Building a fault-tolerant quantum computer will require vast numbers of physical qubits. For qubit technologies based on solid-state electronic devices1-3, integrating millions of qubits in a single processor will require device fabrication to reach a scale comparable to that of the modern complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) industry. Equally important, the scale of cryogenic device testing must keep pace to enable efficient device screening and to improve statistical metrics such as qubit yield and voltage variation. Spin qubits1,4,5 based on electrons in Si have shown impressive control fidelities6-9 but have historically been challenged by yield and process variation10-12. Here we present a testing process using a cryogenic 300-mm wafer prober13 to collect high-volume data on the performance of hundreds of industry-manufactured spin qubit devices at 1.6 K. This testing method provides fast feedback to enable optimization of the CMOS-compatible fabrication process, leading to high yield and low process variation. Using this system, we automate measurements of the operating point of spin qubits and investigate the transitions of single electrons across full wafers. We analyse the random variation in single-electron operating voltages and find that the optimized fabrication process leads to low levels of disorder at the 300-mm scale. Together, these results demonstrate the advances that can be achieved through the application of CMOS-industry techniques to the fabrication and measurement of spin qubit devices.

Atomically engineered electron spin lifetimes of 30 s in silicon.

Scaling up to large arrays of donor-based spin qubits for quantum computation will require the ability to perform high-fidelity readout of multiple individual spin qubits. Recent experiments have shown that the limiting factor for high-fidelity readout of many qubits is the lifetime of the electron spin. We demonstrate the longest reported lifetimes (up to 30 s) of any electron spin qubit in a nanoelectronic device. By atomic-level engineering of the electron wave function within phosphorus atom quantum dots, we can minimize spin relaxation in agreement with recent theoretical predictions. These lifetimes allow us to demonstrate the sequential readout of two electron spin qubits with fidelities as high as 99.8%, which is above the surface code fault-tolerant threshold. This work paves the way for future experiments on multiqubit systems using donors in silicon.

Spin blockade and exchange in Coulomb-confined silicon double quantum dots.

Electron spins confined to phosphorus donors in silicon are promising candidates as qubits because of their long coherence times, exceeding seconds in isotopically purified bulk silicon. With the recent demonstrations of initialization, readout and coherent manipulation of individual donor electron spins, the next challenge towards the realization of a Si:P donor-based quantum computer is the demonstration of exchange coupling in two tunnel-coupled phosphorus donors. Spin-to-charge conversion via Pauli spin blockade, an essential ingredient for reading out individual spin states, is challenging in donor-based systems due to the inherently large donor charging energies (∼45 meV), requiring large electric fields (>1 MV m(-1)) to transfer both electron spins onto the same donor. Here, in a carefully characterized double donor-dot device, we directly observe spin blockade of the first few electrons and measure the effective exchange interaction between electron spins in coupled Coulomb-confined systems.

Transport in asymmetrically coupled donor-based silicon triple quantum dots.

We demonstrate serial electron transport through a donor-based triple quantum dot in silicon fabricated with nanoscale precision by scanning tunnelling microscopy lithography. From an equivalent circuit model, we calculate the electrochemical potentials of the dots allowing us to identify ground and excited states in finite bias transport. Significantly, we show that using a scanning tunnelling microscope, we can directly demonstrate that a ∼1 nm difference in interdot distance dramatically affects transport pathways between the three dots.

Engineering independent electrostatic control of atomic-scale (∼4 nm) silicon double quantum dots.

Scalable quantum computing architectures with electronic spin qubits hosted by arrays of single phosphorus donors in silicon require local electric and magnetic field control of individual qubits separated by ∼10 nm. This daunting task not only requires atomic-scale accuracy of single P donor positioning to control interqubit exchange interaction but also demands precision alignment of control electrodes with careful device design at these small length scales to minimize cross capacitive coupling. Here we demonstrate independent electrostatic control of two Si:P quantum dots, each consisting of ∼15 P donors, in an optimized device design fabricated by scanning tunneling microscope (STM)-based lithography. Despite the atomic-scale dimensions of the quantum dots and control electrodes reducing overall capacitive coupling, the electrostatic behavior of the device shows an excellent match to results of a priori capacitance calculations. These calculations highlight the importance of the interdot angle in achieving independent control at these length-scales. This combination of predictive electrostatic modeling and the atomic-scale fabrication accuracy of STM-lithography, provides a powerful tool for scaling multidonor dots to the single donor limit.