Semiconductor Few-Electron Quantum Dots as Spin Qubits. In: Dieter Heiss W, editor. Quantum Dots: a Doorway to Nanoscale Physics. Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg; 2005. pp. 25-95. [DOI: 10.1007/11358817_2]

Quantum state readout of individual quantum dots by electrostatic force detection

Electric charge detection by atomic force microscopy (AFM) with single-electron resolution (e-EFM) is a promising way to investigate the electronic level structure of individual quantum dots (QDs). The oscillating AFM tip modulates the energy of the QDs, causing single electrons to tunnel between QDs and an electrode. The resulting oscillating electrostatic force changes the resonant frequency and damping of the AFM cantilever, enabling electrometry with a single-electron sensitivity. Quantitative electronic level spectroscopy is possible by sweeping the bias voltage. Charge stability diagram can be obtained by scanning the AFM tip around the QD. e-EFM technique enables to investigate individual colloidal nanoparticles and self-assembled QDs without nanoscale electrodes. e-EFM is a quantum electromechanical system where the back-action of a tunneling electron is detected by AFM; it can also be considered as a mechanical analog of admittance spectroscopy with a radio frequency resonator, which is emerging as a promising tool for quantum state readout for quantum computing. In combination with the topography imaging capability of the AFM, e-EFM is a powerful tool for investigating new nanoscale material systems which can be used as quantum bits.

Electron and boson clusters in confined geometries: symmetry breaking in quantum dots and harmonic traps

We discuss the formation of crystalline electron clusters in semiconductor quantum dots and of crystalline patterns of neutral bosons in harmonic traps. In a first example, we use calculations for two electrons in an elliptic quantum dot to show that the electrons can localize and form a molecular dimer. The calculated singlet-triplet splitting (J) as a function of the magnetic field (B) agrees with cotunneling measurements with its behavior reflecting the effective dissociation of the dimer for large B. Knowledge of the dot shape and of J(B) allows determination of the degree of entanglement. In a second example, we study strongly repelling neutral bosons in two-dimensional harmonic traps. Going beyond the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) mean-field approximation, we show that bosons can localize and form polygonal-ring-like crystalline patterns. The total energy of the crystalline phase saturates in contrast to the GP solution, and its spatial extent becomes smaller than that of the GP condensate.

Deterministic teleportation of electrons in a quantum dot nanostructure

We present a proposal for deterministic quantum teleportation of electrons in a semiconductor nanostructure consisting of a single and a double quantum dot. The central issue addressed in this Letter is how to design and implement the most efficient--in terms of the required number of single and two-qubit operations--deterministic teleportation protocol for this system. Using a group-theoretical analysis, we show that deterministic teleportation requires a minimum of three single-qubit rotations and two entangling (square root SWAP) operations. These can be implemented for spin qubits in quantum dots using electron-spin resonance (for single-spin rotations) and exchange interaction (for square root SWAP operations).