Enabling new quantum frontiers with spin acoustics in silicon

Although silicon has been the defining material of classical information processing, it is currently not the main material advanced for quantum information processing. It would however be very compelling to leverage the existing multibillion euro silicon infrastructure. Silicon spin qubits have already been shown to have excellent single-qubit properties, combining long coherence times with high-fidelity readout and control. The reason silicon qubits are not yet seen as a mainstream platform for quantum computing is mainly due to the lack of convenient coupling and readout mechanisms that could be used to scale-up to practical level. This proposal addresses both deficiencies and aims to enable a long-term future for donor spin qubits in silicon in Europe, for both quantum processing and quantum sensing applications.

This project will provide a scalable solution for all the important aspects of a quantum platform: control and readout, spin-spin coupling, and routing quantum information on-chip. In parallel, we will advance the needed material science methods, concentrating especially on deterministic single-ion doping, isotopical purification and strain tuning of silicon.

The end product of the project will be a complete quantum information platform including qubits, interconnects and scalable control and readout electronics. The platform will be based on embedded atomic spins as qubits, phonons as interconnects and gate defined quantum dots with on-chip multiplexing and amplification as readout devices. The project will bring together the relevant parties in Europe into a collaboration that will form a new hub for donor spin-based silicon quantum computing. The created network will span focused ion beam based single-ion implantation and isotopic purification facilities, semi-commercial silicon foundries, start-up companies working on silicon quantum dots and research groups researching silicon spin quantum computing and quantum acoustics.