Electron-spin-resonance transistors for quantum computing in silicon-germanium heterostructures

Abstract

We apply the full power of modern electronic band structure engineering and epitaxial heterostructures to design a transistor that can sense and control a single donor electron spin. Spin resonance transistors may form the technological basis for quantum information processing. One and two qubit operations are performed by applying a gate bias. The bias electric field pulls the electron wave function away from the dopant ion into layers of different alloy composition. Owing to the variation of the g-factor (Si:g=1.995, Ge:g=1.563), this displacement changes the spin Zeeman energy, allowing single-qubit operations. By displacing the electron even further, the overlap with neighboring qubits is affected, which allows two-qubit operations. Certain Silicon-Germanium alloys allow a qubit spacing as large as 200 nm, which is well within the capabilities of current lithographic techniques. We discuss manufacturing limitations and issues regarding scaling up to a large size computer.