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At above 99 percent, this is the highest fidelity thus far achieved for a two-qubit gate in a semiconductor and is on par with the best results achieved by competing technologies. Fidelity, which is a measure of a qubit’s ability to perform error-free operations, is a key feature in the quest to develop practical and efficient quantum computing.
Researchers around the world are trying to figure out which technologies — such as superconducting qubits, trapped ions or silicon spin qubits, for example — can best be employed as the basic units of quantum computing. And, equally significant, researchers are exploring which technologies will have the ability to scale up most efficiently for commercial use.
“Silicon spin qubits are gaining momentum [in the field],” said Adam Mills, a graduate student in the Department of Physics at Princeton University and the lead author of the recently published study. “It’s looking like a big year for silicon overall.”
By using a silicon device called a double quantum dot, the Princeton researchers were able to capture two electrons and force them to interact. The spin state of each electron can be used as a qubit and the interaction between the electrons can entangle these qubits. This operation is crucial for quantum computation and the research team, led by Jason Petta, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Princeton, was able to perform this entangling operation at a fidelity level exceeding 99.8 percent.