Quantum bits: SOI nanowires open up new possibility

A new step forward toward tomorrow’s quantum computers has been made. Researchers from INAC and Leti demonstrated that the spin of an electron confined in a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanowire can be manipulated by an electric—rather than a magnetic—field. Controlling spin using electric fields generated by grids is a standard microelectronics-industry technology.  Australian and American researchers had previously predicted a tenuous effect of the electric field on electron spin, in the vicinity of a crystal step at the silicon-silicon oxide interface. The Grenoble-based researchers confined the electrons in the edges of rectangular silicon nanowires, producing the asymmetry necessary to couple the spin and electric field. A patent application for the phenomenon, called EDSR*, is currently pending.

*Electric-dipole spin resonance

Contact: marc.sanquer@cea.fr

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