Optimising silicon/silicon-germanium quantum dot qubits

Silicon/silicon-germanium (Si/SiGe) quantum well heterostructures comprise a leading materials system for hosting semiconducting quantum dot qubits. Compared to the silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor materials stack used in most current classical computers, Si/SiGe has the advantage that the qubits are confined near a high-quality epitaxial interface that is relatively far from defects that can degrade performance. This talk will present our recent theoretical work that demonstrates that qubits in Si/SiGe heterostructures are affected strongly by compositional disorder in the SiGe, and discusses how this understanding can be exploited to optimise quantum dot qubits in Si/SiGe.

Prof Susan Coppersmith is the AIP'S 2024 Women In Physics Lecturer. The Women In Physics Lecture tour celebrates and recognises women’s contributions in physics.

Prof Coppersmith is a theoretical condensed matter physicist who has made substantial contributions to the understanding of a broad range of subjects, including glasses, biominerals, granular materials, and quantum computers.

She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Institute of Physics, and the National Academy of Sciences in the USA. She is currently serving as Head of the School of Physics at UNSW Sydney.