Engineering Spin-Orbit Interactions in Silicon Qubits at the Atomic-Scale.

Hsueh, Yu-Ling; Keith, Daniel; Chung, Yousun; Gorman, Samuel K; Kranz, Ludwik; Monir, Serajum; Kembrey, Zachary; Keizer, Joris G et al. · Adv Mater · 2024

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Spin-orbit interactions arise whenever the bulk inversion symmetry and/or structural inversion symmetry of a crystal is broken providing a bridge between a qubit's spin and orbital degree of freedom. While strong interactions can facilitate fast qubit operations by all-electrical control, they also provide a mechanism to couple charge noise thereby limiting qubit lifetimes. Previously believed to be negligible in bulk silicon, recent silicon nano-electronic devices have shown larger than bulk spin-orbit coupling strengths from Dresselhaus and Rashba couplings. Here, it is shown that with precision placement of phosphorus atoms in silicon along the [110] direction (without inversion symmetry) or [111] direction (with inversion symmetry), a wide range of Dresselhaus and Rashba coupling strength can be achieved from zero to 1113 × 10<sup>-13</sup>eV-cm. It is shown that with precision placement of phosphorus atoms, the local symmetry (C<sub>2v</sub>, D<sub>2d</sub>, and D<sub>3d</sub>) can be changed to engineer spin-orbit interactions. Since spin-orbit interactions affect both qubit operation and lifetimes, understanding their impact is essential for quantum processor design.