Argonne National Laboratory

Research Highlight | Center for Nanoscale Materials

New qubit platform could pave way for new quantum information systems
In a paper appearing in Quantum Science and Technology, researchers present a theoretical analysis showing that a single-electron qubit floating on a solid neon could achieve a coherence time as long as 81seconds.
Qubit platform configuration. An electron floats in the vacuum above a solid Ne film. Below the solid Ne, there are a metal electrode and a substrate. The red cloud represents the electron wavefunction at a mean distance d ≈ 1 nm away from the surface and extending along the surface on the scale of 100 nm.

Scientific Achievement

Theoretical analysis of decoherence mechanisms indicated that an electron spin qubit on a purified solid neon surface could achieve a coherence time as long as 81 seconds.

Significance and Impact

The theoretical results indicate that single-electron qubits on solid neon could be superior to most existing semiconductor spin qubits. Such qubits would be applicable to quantum computing and other quantum information systems

Research Details

  • The inhomogeneous dephasing time was estimated as 0.16 ms with natural Ne and 0.43 s with purified Ne, better than most semiconductor quantum-dot spin qubits.
  • Under Hahn echoes, the coherence time improved to 30 ms for natural Ne and 81 s for purified Ne.
 

Work was performed, in part, at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM).

DOI: 10.1088/2058-9565/ac82c3

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