Electrical control of the hole spin qubit in Si and Ge nanowire quantum dots

TL;DR

This paper investigates how nanowire geometry, orientation, and strain affect the electrical control and manipulation speed of hole spin qubits in Si and Ge nanowire quantum dots, identifying optimal configurations for fast qubit operation.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of different nanowire geometries and strain effects, highlighting the optimal conditions for maximizing Rabi frequencies in hole spin qubits.

Findings

Square profile nanowires enable stronger qubit driving than circular ones.

Si nanowire quantum dots can achieve the highest Rabi frequencies under strong electric fields.

Strain generally decreases Rabi frequency, but effects can be tuned with electric field adjustments.

Abstract

Strong, direct Rashba spin-orbit coupling in Si, Ge, and the Ge/Si core/shell nanowire quantum dot (QD) allows for all electrical manipulation of the hole spin qubit. Motivated by this fact, we analyze different fabrication-dependent properties of nanowires, such as orientation, cross section, and the presence of strain, with the goal being to find the material and geometry that enables the fastest qubit manipulation, whose speed can be identified using the Rabi frequency. We show that QD in nanowires with a circular cross section (cNWs) enables much weaker driving of the hole spin qubit than QDs embedded in square profile nanowires (sNWs). Assuming the orientation of the Si nanowire that maximizes the spin-orbit effects, our calculations predict that the Rabi frequencies of the hole spin qubits inside Ge and Si sNW QD have comparable strengths for weak electric fields. The global maximum of the Rabi frequency is found in Si sNW QD for strong electric fields, putting this setup ahead of others in creating the hole spin qubit. Finally, we demonstrate that strain in the Si/Ge core/shell nanowire QD decreases the Rabi frequency. In cNW QD, this effect is weak; in sNW QD, it is possible to optimize the impact of strain with the appropriate tuning of the electric field strength.