Optomechanical quantum bus for spins in silicon (QBusSi)
Main funder
Funder's project number: 852428
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 1 645 000,00
Funding program
- ERC Starting Grant (ERC European Research Council,...)
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/03/2020
Project end date: 28/02/2025
Summary
Silicon has been the material underpinning the modern information technology revolution. I would argue that it might be the most important material of the coming quantum technology age as well. This will be of tremendous advantage to the diffusion of quantum technologies as they can then leverage the existing infrastructure of conventional silicon electronics and photonics. My project is aimed at unlocking the quantum potential of silicon technologies.
Qubits are of fundamental interest not only for the tantalizing prospect of building a quantum computer but also because they can work as powerful quantum sensors. In this project, I will advance a novel emerging physical implementation of qubits: impurity spin states in silicon. These states are now known to be excellent qubits with the longest single qubit coherence times demonstrated in solid state. This is a significant advantage for both quantum sensing and quantum information applications.
However, at the moment the application potential of silicon impurity qubits is hindered by two related obstacles: current readout techniques require nanoelectric connections, millikelvin temperatures and high magnetic fields, and there are no scalable methods to couple multiple qubits.
This project will realize an optomechanical quantum bus for spins in silicon in order to enable optical and mechanical coupling and readout mechanisms for the spins and hence overcome all of these obstacles. The quantum bus will not only allow integrating the spin qubits with existing silicon photonics and NEMS platforms for integrated quantum circuits and practical quantum sensors but will also provide a solid-state on-chip testbed for creating and studying macroscopic quantum states.
Qubits are of fundamental interest not only for the tantalizing prospect of building a quantum computer but also because they can work as powerful quantum sensors. In this project, I will advance a novel emerging physical implementation of qubits: impurity spin states in silicon. These states are now known to be excellent qubits with the longest single qubit coherence times demonstrated in solid state. This is a significant advantage for both quantum sensing and quantum information applications.
However, at the moment the application potential of silicon impurity qubits is hindered by two related obstacles: current readout techniques require nanoelectric connections, millikelvin temperatures and high magnetic fields, and there are no scalable methods to couple multiple qubits.
This project will realize an optomechanical quantum bus for spins in silicon in order to enable optical and mechanical coupling and readout mechanisms for the spins and hence overcome all of these obstacles. The quantum bus will not only allow integrating the spin qubits with existing silicon photonics and NEMS platforms for integrated quantum circuits and practical quantum sensors but will also provide a solid-state on-chip testbed for creating and studying macroscopic quantum states.