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Spin qubits with electrically gated polyoxometalate molecules

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 312–317 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Spin qubits offer one of the most promising routes to the implementation of quantum computers. Very recent results in semiconductor quantum dots show that electrically-controlled gating schemes are particularly well-suited for the realization of a universal set of quantum logical gates. Scalability to a larger number of qubits, however, remains an issue for such semiconductor quantum dots. In contrast, a chemical bottom-up approach allows one to produce identical units in which localized spins represent the qubits. Molecular magnetism has produced a wide range of systems with properties that can be tailored, but so far, there have been no molecules in which the spin state can be controlled by an electrical gate. Here we propose to use the polyoxometalate [PMo12O40(VO)2]q−, where two localized spins with S = 1/2 can be coupled through the electrons of the central core. Through electrical manipulation of the molecular redox potential, the charge of the core can be changed. With this setup, two-qubit gates and qubit readout can be implemented.

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Figure 1: Polyoxometalate hosting two spin qubits.
Figure 2: Electrical two-qubit gating.
Figure 3: Average fidelity for the two-qubit quantum gate.
Figure 4: Readout through tunnelling.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W.A. Coish for discussions and Murad AlDamen for his collaboration with the ab initio calculations. Financial support by the EU Research Training Network QuEMolNa (MRTN-CT-2003-5044880), the EU Network of Excellence MAGMANet (NMP3-CT-2005-515767), the National Center of Competence in Research Nanoscience, the Swiss NSF, the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MAT2004-3849) and the Generalitat Valenciana is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics und Astronomy, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, Basel, CH-4056, Switzerland

    Jörg Lehmann, Alejandro Gaita-Arin̄o & Daniel Loss

  2. Instituto de Ciencia Molecular, Universitat de Valencia, Polígono de La Coma, s/n, Paterna, E-46980, Spain

    Alejandro Gaita-Arin̄o & Eugenio Coronado

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  1. Jörg Lehmann
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  3. Eugenio Coronado
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  4. Daniel Loss
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Correspondence to Daniel Loss.

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Supplementary discussion, figures S1 and S2, supplementary references (PDF 1162 kb)

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Lehmann, J., Gaita-Arin̄o, A., Coronado, E. et al. Spin qubits with electrically gated polyoxometalate molecules. Nature Nanotech 2, 312–317 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.110

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