Strong coupling between a photon and a hole spin in silicon

Nat Nanotechnol. 2023 Jul;18(7):741-746. doi: 10.1038/s41565-023-01332-3. Epub 2023 Mar 6.

Abstract

Spins in semiconductor quantum dots constitute a promising platform for scalable quantum information processing. Coupling them strongly to the photonic modes of superconducting microwave resonators would enable fast non-demolition readout and long-range, on-chip connectivity, well beyond nearest-neighbour quantum interactions. Here we demonstrate strong coupling between a microwave photon in a superconducting resonator and a hole spin in a silicon-based double quantum dot issued from a foundry-compatible metal-oxide-semiconductor fabrication process. By leveraging the strong spin-orbit interaction intrinsically present in the valence band of silicon, we achieve a spin-photon coupling rate as high as 330 MHz, largely exceeding the combined spin-photon decoherence rate. This result, together with the recently demonstrated long coherence of hole spins in silicon, opens a new realistic pathway to the development of circuit quantum electrodynamics with spins in semiconductor quantum dots.