Hole spin qubits in planar Ge heterostructures are one of the frontrunner platforms for scalable quantum computers. In these systems, the spin-orbit interactions permit efficient all-electric qubit control. We propose a minimal design modification of planar devices that enhances these interactions by orders of magnitude and enables low power ultrafast qubit operations in the GHz range. Our approach is based on an asymmetric potential that strongly squeezes the quantum dot in one direction. This confinement-induced spin-orbit interaction does not rely on microscopic details of the device such as growth direction or strain and could be turned on and off on demand in state-of-the-art qubits.

Hole-spin qubits in quasi-one-dimensional structures are a promising platform for quantum information processing because of the strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI). We present analytical results and discuss device designs that optimize the SOI in Ge semiconductors. We show that at the magnetic field values at which qubits are operated, orbital effects of magnetic fields can strongly affect the response of the spin qubit. We study one-dimensional hole systems in Ge under the influence of electric and magnetic fields applied perpendicular to the device. In our theoretical description, we include these effects exactly. The orbital effects lead to a strong renormalization of the g factor. We find a sweet spot of the nanowire (NW) g factor where charge noise is strongly suppressed and present an effective low-energy model that captures the dependence of the SOI on the electromagnetic fields. Moreover, we compare properties of NWs with square and circular cross sections with ones of gate-defined one-dimensional channels in two-dimensional Ge heterostructures. Interestingly, the effective model predicts a flat band ground state for fine-tuned electric and magnetic fields. By considering a quantum dot (QD) harmonically confined by gates, we demonstrate that the NW g-factor sweet spot is retained in the QD. Our calculations reveal that this sweet spot can be designed to coincide with the maximum of the SOI, yielding highly coherent qubits with large Rabi frequencies. We also study the effective g factor of NWs grown along different high-symmetry axes and find that our model derived for isotropic semiconductors is valid for the most relevant growth directions of nonisotropic Ge NWs. Moreover, a NW grown along one of the three main crystallographic axes shows the largest SOI. Our results show that the isotropic approximation is not justified in Ge in all cases.

We propose and analyze a novel "flopping-mode" mechanism for electric dipole spin resonance based on the delocalization of a single electron across a double quantum dot confinement potential. Delocalization of the charge maximizes the electronic dipole moment compared to the conventional single dot spin resonance configuration. We present a theoretical investigation of the floppingmode spin qubit properties through the crossover from the double to the single dot configuration by calculating effective spin Rabi frequencies and single-qubit gate fidelities. The flopping-mode regime optimizes the artificial spin-orbit effect generated by an external micromagnet and draws on the existence of an externally controllable sweet spot, where the coupling of the qubit to charge noise is highly suppressed. We further analyze the sweet spot behavior in the presence of a longitudinal magnetic field gradient, which gives rise to a second order sweet spot with reduced sensitivity to charge fluctuations. arXiv:1904.13117v2 [cond-mat.mes-hall]

The Ag2S gap-type atomic switch based “tug of war” device is a promising element for building a new type of CMOS free neuromorphic computer-hardware. Since Ag+ cations are reduced during operation of the device, it was thought that the gap-material should be a n-type polymer. In this study, we revealed that the polymer bithiophene–oligoethyleneoxide (BTOE) doped poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), which was used as gap-material in the first demonstration of the “tug of war”, is a p-type polymer. For this we used impedance spectroscopy and transistor measurements. We elaborate on how the electrochemical processes in the “tug of war” devices could be explained in the case of p-type conductive gap-materials.

Hole semiconductor nanowires (NW) are promising platforms to host spin qubits and Majorana bound states for topological qubits because of their strong spin-orbit interactions (SOI). The properties of these systems depend strongly on the design of the cross section and on strain, as well as on external electric and magnetic fields. In this paper, we analyze in detail the dependence of the SOI and g factors on the orbital magnetic field. We focus on magnetic fields aligned along the axis of the NW, where orbital effects are enhanced and result in a renormalization of the effective g factor up to 400%, even at small values of magnetic field. We provide an exact analytical solution for holes in Ge NWs and we derive an effective low-energy model that enables us to investigate the effect of electric fields applied perpendicular to the NW. We also discuss in detail the role of strain, growth direction, and high-energy valence bands in different architectures, including Ge/Si core/shell NWs, gate-defined one-dimensional channels in planar Ge, and curved Ge quantum wells. By comparing NWs with different growth directions, we find that the isotropic approximation is well justified. Curved Ge quantum wells feature large effective g factors and SOI at low electric field, ideal for hosting Majorana bound states. In contrast, at strong electric field, these quantities are independent of the field, making hole spin qubits encoded in curved quantum wells to good approximation not susceptible to charge noise, and significantly boosting their coherence time.