Paper

Peptides as versatile scaffolds for quantum computing

Wlazło, Karolina, Escorcia-Ariza, Garin, Ramón Torres Cavanillas, Clemente-León, Miguel, Prima-García, Helena, Escalera-Moreno, Luis, García-Llácer, Carolina, Cardona-Serra, Salvador, Rosaleny, Lorena E, Baldoví, José J, Casino, Patricia, Gołȩbiewska, Violetta, Gaita-Ariño, Alejandro, Coronado, Eugenio, ment-Aliaga, Alicia, Tatay, Sergio, Martínez-Gil, Luis

2017

Overview

In this work we showcase the potential of peptides as versatile scaffolds for quantum computing and molecular spintronics. In particular, we focus on lanthanide-binding tags, which were originally developed in the field of biotechnology for the study of protein structure and dynamics. Firstly, we demonstrate quantum coherent oscillations in a Neodymium peptidic qubit. Then, employing bacterial biosynthesis, we investigate the possibility of increasing the number of qubits in the same molecular system, with the case studies being a double spin qubit with two distinct coordination environments, and an asymmetric chain of 9 spin qubits with a spin-spin separation of about 2 nm and in an arbitrarily chosen sequence of coordination environments. Finally, we take advantage of biochemical modification for the preparation of paramagnetic, chiral, Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) on Au(111).Our experimental and theoretical characterization shows that this is a promising structure for spintronic applications, and in particular to improve on two state-of-the-art approaches to molecular spin qubits. We conclude with an overview of the challenges and new opportunities opened by this emerging field.

• Publisher: Cornell University Library, arXiv.org
• Subject: Biosynthesis / Computation / Gold / Neodymium / Peptides / Proteins / Quantum computing / Quantum theory / Qubits (quantum computing) / Scaffolds / Self-assembled monolayers / Self-assembly / Spintronics