Engineering Spin-Orbit Interaction in Silicon

Technical Report · Sat Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1475504· OSTI ID:1475504

Lu, Tzu-Ming ^[1]; Maurer, Leon ^[1]; Bussmann, Ezra ^[1]; Harris, Charles Thomas ^[1]; Tracy, Lisa A. ^[1]; Sapkota, Keshab Raj ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

There has been much interest in leveraging the topological order of materials for quantum information processing. Among the various solid-state systems, one-dimensional topological superconductors made out of strongly spin-orbit-coupled nanowires have been shown to be the most promising material platform. In this project, we investigated the feasibility of turning silicon, which is a non-topological semiconductor and has weak spin-orbit coupling, into a one-dimensional topological superconductor. Our theoretical analysis showed that it is indeed possible to create a sizable effective spin-orbit gap in the energy spectrum of a ballistic one-dimensional electron channel in silicon with the help of nano-magnet arrays. Experimentally, we developed magnetic materials needed for fabricating such nano-magnets, characterized the magnetic behavior at low temperatures, and successfully demonstrated the required magnetization configuration for opening the spin-orbit gap. Our results pave the way toward a practical topological quantum computing platform using silicon, one of the most technologically mature electronic materials.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525
• OSTI ID: 1475504
• Report Number(s): SAND--2018-10877; 668421
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING