Spinbasedquantumcomputing: quantumdotsandmolecularmagnets

DimitrijeStepanenko
Departmentofphysics,UniversityofBasel

SNF,ECMolSpinQIP,NCCR Nano,NSF

Collaborators: MirceaTrif,DanielLoss(Basel), FilippoTroiani(Modena), NickBonesteel(Florida,USA), DavidDiVincenzo(IBMYorktown,USA)

Quantumandclassicalcomputing
Amanprovidedwithpaper,pencil,andrubber,andsubjecttostrictdiscipline isineffectauniversalTuringMachine.AlanTuring

Logicgate implementedby transistors

Opteronprocessor Turingmachine

Howtomodelandimplementacomputerbasedon quantummechanics?

Quantumandclassicalcomputing
Thesimplestquantumsystem. PointontheBlochsphere

Nbitregister

dimensionalvectorinastatespace

Quantumcomputationisaseriesofunitarytransformationsona setoftwolevelquantumsystemsqubits.

Quantumandclassicalcomputing
Quantumcomputingistheonlyknowncomputationalmodel thatmaybemorepowerfulthantheTuringmachine.
Factoringintegers: Hardonclassicalcomputers Easyonquantumcomputers(Shor)

Searchofanunstructureddatabase: OrderNonclassicalcomputers
1/2 OrderNonquantumcomputers (Grover)

Quantumandclassicalcomputing
DiVincenzocriteria: Fivecriteriathatanyimplementationofa quantumcomputermustsatisfy. Howdospinsfare?

1.Welldefinedqubits 2.Initializationtoapurestate 3.Universalsetofquantumgates 4.Qubitspecificmeasurement 5.Longcoherencetimes

Spin1/2istheidealqubit Strongmagneticfields ESR,spinspininteractions Spintochargeconversion Dependsontheenvironment

Spinasaqubit
Quantumdots:puddles ofelectronsconfinedin allthreedirections. Spincontrolthroughgatevoltages (relativelyeasy)andESR(veryhard). Noisyenvironment,phonons,spinorbit interaction,nuclearspins.

EnslinLab,ETHZurich

Molecularmagnets:moleculeswithlowenergy propertiesdominatedbyasetofinteractingspins. Identicalqubits,interactingspinswithina molecule,quietenvironment,hardtocontrol.

ElectricversusMagneticfields

Strongelectricfields areeasytoobtain (gates,STMtips,etc) Fastswitchingof electricfields(~ps) Easytoapplyelectric fieldslocallyandon nanoscale

Strongmagnetic (ac)fieldsarehardto obtain Slowswitchingof magneticfields(~ns) Veryhardtoapply localmagneticfields onthenanoscale

Electriccontrolofspinsinquantumdots
Electric control of Heisenberg exchange interaction between spins in quantum dots. SL
Loss & DiVincenzo (1997)

SR

Exchangeissymmetricunderspinrotations.

Correctionstoisotropy:Spinorbitinteraction
Dominantspininteractioninquantum dots:isotropicHeisenbergexchange Spininelectricfield:anisotropic corrections Labframe:staticelectricfield Electronrestframe:magnetic component Zeemancouplingofspinto electricfield CausedbyCoulombrepulsionand antisymmetry Invariantunderspinrotations Commuteswithitselfatdifferenttimes

Causedbyarelativisticeffect Brokeninvarianceunderspin rotations Doesnotcommutewithitselfat differenttimes

Pulsesoftimedependentanisotropicexchange

Electriccontrolofspinsandspinorbitinteraction

Spinorbitinteraction: rotatedexchange brokensymmetry

Itispossibletoproducenewgates.

Encodedqubitsandanisotropy
Logicalqubitencodedinthestatesof pairsofspins. Notanidealqubitanymore Leakageerrorsarepossible. Applyinggatesofvarious anisotropiesallowsforsingle qubitoperations.Thereisno needformagneticcontrol.

DSandN.Bonesteel,PRL(2004)

Whataremolecularnanomagnets?
Molecularnanomagnetsarelargemoleculeswhichshowmagnetic propertiessimilartobulkmagneticmaterials

Example:
Mn12

S=10

Dissimilarities:

stepsofmagnetization almostnointeractionbetweenmolecules quantumtunnelingofmagnetization longspinrelaxationtimes quantuminterference

quantumtoclassical transitionregime!

Molecularnanomagnetsinelectricfields:Cu3

Cu3trianglewithspins=1/2oneachCusite

EffectivespinHamiltonian(nofields):

Heisenbergexchange+DzyaloshinskiMoryia
Antiferromagneticallycoupledspins(Jii+1<0): chiralgroundstatewithS=1/2and1st excitedstatewithS=3/2

Choietal.,PRL(2006).

energysplittingbetweenS=1/2andS=3/2: ~8K (Jii+1~5K)and|Dii+1|~0.5K

Cu3moleculeinelectricfields

ElectricfieldEchangesbondstrengths exchangecouplingJJ+Jij And:brokeninversionsymmetry Efieldcouplestospintexture

d:electricdipoleparameter

onlyinplaneEfieldscoupletospins!

ChiralityOperator

ThechiralityoperatorChasthe3components

andbehavesaspseudospinspinqubit:

Trif,Troiani,DS,Loss,PRL(2008),PRB(2010)

Cu3moleculeinmagneticandelectricfields

Sz=1/2,Cz=1
Efieldinduced transitions

Sz=1/2,Cz=1

Bfieldinduced transitions(ESR)

Bfieldinduced transitions(ESR)

Efieldinduced transitions

Sz=1/2,Cz=1

Sz=1/2,Cz=1

InterplaybetweenmagneticandelectricfieldsinCu3
Controlofspin

NomixingoftotalspinforperpendicularmagneticfieldsBz!

InterplaybetweenmagneticandelectricfieldsinCu3
Allimportantd!

standardESRmeasurementsinstaticelectricfieldsgivedirectaccesstothe electricdipoleparameterd(viaslopein(b))

Cu3moleculecoupledtoamicrowavecavity
NCu3moleculesplacedinsideaonedimensionalmicrowavecavity*):

spinphotoncoupling spinspincouplingbetweendistant molecules(viavirtualphotonexchange) Conditionaldynamicsofdistantmolecule'sspinchiralitiesandtotalspins!

*)Wallraffetal.,Nature431,162(2004)(superconductingqubits)

Estimates

Note:Electricfieldincavityincreaseswithdecreasingvolume

Summary
Atthenanoscale,itiseasiertocontrolstronglocalelectricfields thantocontrolstronglocalmagneticfields. Throughpulseshapingandspinorbitcouplingitispossibleto controlspinsinquantumdotsusingexclusivelytheelectricfields. Spinsinmoleculesthatlacktheinversionsymmetry(likeCu3) coupletoexternalelectricfields. Couplingofmolecularmagnetstoelectricfieldsallowsfor quantumoperationsonmolecularspins.