Electric field manipulation enhanced by strong spin-orbit coupling: promoting rare-earth ions as qubits

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how strong spin-orbit coupling in rare-earth ions like Ce3+ can be exploited using electric fields for efficient quantum control, advancing their potential as qubits in quantum computing.

Contribution

It introduces a method to manipulate rare-earth ion qubits via electric fields leveraging spin-orbit coupling, with experimental validation on Ce:YAG crystals.

Findings

Achieved up to 57 π/2 quantum operations before decoherence.

Demonstrated high-efficiency quantum phase gate using electric field manipulation.

Implemented quantum bang-bang control and Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with rare-earth ions.

Abstract

Quantum information processing based on magnetic ions are considered potential candidates for applications because they can be modified and scaled up by a variety of chemical methods. For these systems to achieve individual spin addressability and high energy efficiency, we exploited the electric field as a tool to manipulate their quantum behaviours, functioning via spin-orbit coupling. A Ce:YAG single crystal was employed due to that rare-earth ions have strong spin-orbit coupling and with considerations regarding the dynamics and the symmetry requirements. The Stark effect of the Ce3+ ion was observed and measured. When demonstrated as a quantum phase gate, the electric field manipulation exhibited high efficiency which allowed up to 57 {\pi}/2 operations before decoherence with optimized field directions. It was also utilized to carry out quantum bang-bang control, as a method of dynamic decoupling, and the refined Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm. Our experiments highlighted rare-earth ions as potentially applicable qubits since they offer enhanced spin-electric coupling which enables high-efficiency quantum manipulation.