Harnessing the Power of ‘Spin Orbit’ Coupling in Silicon

Harnessing the power of 'spin orbit' coupling in silicon: Scaling up quantum computation

Spin-orbit coupling (the interaction between a qubit's spin and its orbital motion) offers a promising route to scaling up quantum computers. By allowing qubits to be manipulated via electric rather than magnetic fields, and coupled over larger distances, it adds valuable flexibility to chip design and fabrication.

In research published in npj Quantum Information, the SQC team uncovered a previously unknown coupling between donor electron spins and the electric fields present in device architectures. While spin-orbit control in silicon had long been considered weak, the team found they can in fact dominate spin relaxation and also be controlled.

By carefully aligning the external magnetic field with the device's electric fields, the team extended spin lifetimes from seconds toward the minutes-long values seen in bulk silicon.

Michelle Simmons, SQC Founder and CEO, said: "By careful alignment of the external magnetic field with the electric fields in an atomically engineered device, we found a means to extend these spin lifetimes to minutes. Given the long spin coherence times and the technological benefits of silicon, this newly discovered coupling of the donor spin with electric fields provides a pathway for electrically-driven spin resonance techniques, promising high qubit selectivity."

Read the full paper in npj Quantum Information:

Spin–orbit coupling in silicon for electrons bound to donors

Read the UNSW newsroom coverage:

Harnessing the power of 'spin-orbit' coupling: scaling up spin-based quantum computation

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