Journal Article

Room-Temperature Quantum Bit Storage Exceeding 39 Minutes Using Ionized Donors in Silicon-28

Salvail, Jeff Z., Pohl, Hans-Joachim, Morton, John J. L., Simmons, Stephanie, Riemann, Helge, Abrosimov, Nikolai V., Thewalt, Mike L. W., Saeedi, Kamyar, Dluhy, Phillip, Becker, Peter

2013

Overview

Quantum memories capable of storing and retrieving coherent information for extended times at room temperature would enable a host of new technologies. Electron and nuclear spin qubits using shallow neutral donors in semiconductors have been studied extensively but are limited to low temperatures (<̰10 kelvin); however, the nuclear spins of ionized donors have the potential for high-temperature operation. We used optical methods and dynamical decoupling to realize this potential for an ensemble of phosphorous-31 donors in isotopically purified silicon-28 and observed a room-temperature coherence time of over 39 minutes. We further showed that a coherent spin superposition can be cycled from 4.2 kelvin to room temperature and back, and we report a cryogenic coherence time of 3 hours in the same system.

• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science,The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subject: ambient temperature / Atoms / Charging / Classical and quantum physics: mechanics and fields / Climate / Coherence / Computer science / Cryogenic temperature / Decoupling / Donors / Donors (electronic) / Dynamical systems / Electron spin / Exact sciences and technology / High temperature / Information storage / ionization / Low temperature / Noise reduction / Nuclear spin / Optical transition / Physics / Quantum computation / Quantum information / Quantum physics / Qubits (quantum computing) / Radioactive decay / Room temperature / Silicon / Spin temperature / Temperature effects