A single hole spin with enhanced coherence in natural silicon

Semiconductor spin qubits based on spin-orbit states are responsive to electric field excitations, allowing for practical, fast and potentially scalable qubit control. Spin electric susceptibility, however, renders these qubits generally vulnerable to electrical noise, which limits their coherence time. Here we report on a spin-orbit qubit consisting of a single hole electrostatically confined in a natural silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor device. By varying the magnetic field orientation, we reveal the existence of operation sweet spots where the impact of charge noise is minimized while preserving an efficient electric-dipole spin control. We correspondingly observe an extension of the Hahn-echo coherence time up to 88 μs, exceeding by an order of magnitude existing values reported for hole spin qubits, and approaching the state-of-the-art for electron spin qubits with synthetic spin-orbit coupling in isotopically purified silicon. Our finding enhances the prospects of silicon-based hole spin qubits for scalable quantum information processing.

Glomerular endothelial cell senescence drives age-related kidney disease through PAI-1

The mechanisms underlying the development of glomerular lesions during aging are largely unknown. It has been suggested that senescence might play a role, but the pathophysiological link between senescence and lesion development remains unexplained. Here, we uncovered an unexpected role for glomerular endothelial cells during aging. In fact, we discovered a detrimental cross-talk between senescent endothelial cells and podocytes, through PAI-1. In vivo, selective inactivation of PAI-1 in endothelial cells protected glomeruli from lesion development and podocyte loss in aged mice. In vitro, blocking PAI-1 in supernatants from senescent endothelial cells prevented podocyte apoptosis. Consistently, depletion of senescent cells prevented podocyte loss in old p16 INK-ATTAC transgenic mice. Importantly, these experimental findings are relevant to humans. We showed that glomerular PAI-1 expression was predictive of poor outcomes in transplanted kidneys from elderly donors. In addition, we observed that in elderly patients, urinary PAI-1 was associated with age-related chronic kidney disease. Altogether, these results uncover a novel mechanism of kidney disease and identify PAI-1 as a promising biomarker of kidney dysfunction in allografts from elderly donors.

P0018GLOMERULAR ENDOTHELIAL CELL SENESCENCE DRIVES AGE-RELATED KIDNEY DISEASE THROUGH PAI-1

Background and Aims

In age-related chronic kidney disease (CKD), the most frequent histological lesion observed is glomerulosclerosis. The molecular mechanisms involved in this deterioration process are unclear, but cellular senescence might play a role.

Method

By combining several murine models of physiological and accelerated aging with transgenic animals and in vitro models, we discovered the role of endothelial senescence in the development of glomerular lesions.

Results

These senescent glomerular endothelial cells secreted several molecules, grouped under the senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP) including the plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1). Specific deletion of PAI-1 in endothelial cells prevented the development of glomerulosclerosis during physiological and accelerated aging, by decreasing podocyte loss. In addition, we showed that PAI-1 mediates a detrimental endothelial-podocyte crosstalk, as incubation of podocytes by supernatant of senescent glomerular endothelial cells led to their detachment. Consistently, preincubation of the senescent supernatant with tiplaxtinin, a PAI-1 inhibitor, preserved podocytes. More importantly, we demonstrated that these data are relevant to humans. In fact, PAI-1 staining the day of the transplantation was predictive of kidney allograft dysfunction 12 months after transplantation from elderly donors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our study uncovers the critical role played by endothelial senescence in the development of glomerulosclerosis during aging and identified PAI-1 as a novel promising biomarker for predicting kidney dysfunction in patients receiving a kidney from elderly donors.

Gate-reflectometry dispersive readout and coherent control of a spin qubit in silicon

Silicon spin qubits have emerged as a promising path to large-scale quantum processors. In this prospect, the development of scalable qubit readout schemes involving a minimal device overhead is a compelling step. Here we report the implementation of gate-coupled rf reflectometry for the dispersive readout of a fully functional spin qubit device. We use a p-type double-gate transistor made using industry-standard silicon technology. The first gate confines a hole quantum dot encoding the spin qubit, the second one a helper dot enabling readout. The qubit state is measured through the phase response of a lumped-element resonator to spin-selective interdot tunneling. The demonstrated qubit readout scheme requires no coupling to a Fermi reservoir, thereby offering a compact and potentially scalable solution whose operation may be extended above 1 K.

Highly Efficient Spin-to-Charge Current Conversion in Strained HgTe Surface States Protected by a HgCdTe Layer

We report the observation of spin-to-charge current conversion in strained mercury telluride at room temperature, using spin pumping experiments. We show that a HgCdTe barrier can be used to protect the HgTe from direct contact with the ferromagnet, leading to very high conversion rates, with inverse Edelstein lengths up to 2.0±0.5  nm. The influence of the HgTe layer thickness on the conversion efficiency is found to differ strongly from what is expected in spin Hall effect systems. These measurements, associated with the temperature dependence of the resistivity, suggest that these high conversion rates are due to the spin momentum locking property of HgTe surface states.

Coherent long-distance displacement of individual electron spins

Controlling nanocircuits at the single electron spin level is a possible route for large-scale quantum information processing. In this context, individual electron spins have been identified as versatile quantum information carriers to interconnect different nodes of a spin-based semiconductor quantum circuit. Despite extensive experimental efforts to control the electron displacement over long distances, maintaining electron spin coherence after transfer remained elusive up to now. Here we demonstrate that individual electron spins can be displaced coherently over a distance of 5 µm. This displacement is realized on a closed path made of three tunnel-coupled lateral quantum dots at a speed approaching 100 ms⁻¹. We find that the spin coherence length is eight times longer than expected from the electron spin coherence without displacement, pointing at a process similar to motional narrowing observed in nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. The demonstrated coherent displacement will open the route towards long-range interaction between distant spin qubits.

The spin states of electrons in quantum dots have well-established potential for use as qubits but some proposed developments require the ability to move the quantum spin state across a larger device. Here, the authors experimentally demonstrate coherent shuttling of spins in a ring of three dots.

Fast spin information transfer between distant quantum dots using individual electrons

Transporting ensembles of electrons over long distances without losing their spin polarization is an important benchmark for spintronic devices. It usually requires injecting and probing spin-polarized electrons in conduction channels using ferromagnetic contacts or optical excitation. In parallel with this development, important efforts have been dedicated to achieving control of nanocircuits at the single-electron level. The detection and coherent manipulation of the spin of a single electron trapped in a quantum dot are now well established. Combined with the recently demonstrated control of the displacement of individual electrons between two distant quantum dots, these achievements allow the possibility of realizing spintronic protocols at the single-electron level. Here, we demonstrate that spin information carried by one or two electrons can be transferred between two quantum dots separated by a distance of 4 μm with a classical fidelity of 65%. We show that at present it is limited by spin flips occurring during the transfer procedure before and after electron displacement. Being able to encode and control information in the spin degree of freedom of a single electron while it is being transferred over distances of a few micrometres on nanosecond timescales will pave the way towards 'quantum spintronics' devices, which could be used to implement large-scale spin-based quantum information processing.

Transmission phase in the Kondo regime revealed in a two-path interferometer

We report on the direct observation of the transmission phase shift through a Kondo correlated quantum dot by employing a new type of two-path interferometer. We observed a clear π/2-phase shift, which persists up to the Kondo temperature TK. Above this temperature, the phase shifts by more than π/2 at each Coulomb peak, approaching the behavior observed for the standard Coulomb blockade regime. These observations are in remarkable agreement with two-level numerical renormalization group calculations. The unique combination of experimental and theoretical results presented here fully elucidates the phase evolution in the Kondo regime.

Effect of disorder on the quantum coherence in mesoscopic wires

We present phase coherence time measurements in quasi-one-dimensional mesoscopic wires made from high mobility two-dimensional electron gas. By implanting gallium ions into a GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction we are able to vary the diffusion coefficient over 2 orders of magnitude. We show that in the diffusive limit, the decoherence time follows a power law as a function of diffusion coefficient as expected by theory. When the disorder is low enough so that the samples are semiballistic, we observe a new and unexpected regime in which the phase coherence time is independent of disorder. In addition, for all samples the temperature dependence of the phase coherence time follows a power law down to the lowest temperatures without any sign of saturation and this strongly suggests that the frequently observed low temperature saturation is not intrinsic.

Experimental signature of phonon-mediated spin relaxation in a two-electron quantum dot

We observe an experimental signature of the role of phonons in spin relaxation between triplet and singlet states in a two-electron quantum dot. Using both the external magnetic field and the electrostatic confinement potential, we change the singlet-triplet energy splitting from 1.3 meV to zero and observe that the spin relaxation time depends nonmonotonously on the energy splitting. A simple theoretical model is derived to capture the underlying physical mechanism. The present experiment confirms that spin-flip energy is dissipated in the phonon bath.

Driven coherent oscillations of a single electron spin in a quantum dot

The ability to control the quantum state of a single electron spin in a quantum dot is at the heart of recent developments towards a scalable spin-based quantum computer. In combination with the recently demonstrated controlled exchange gate between two neighbouring spins, driven coherent single spin rotations would permit universal quantum operations. Here, we report the experimental realization of single electron spin rotations in a double quantum dot. First, we apply a continuous-wave oscillating magnetic field, generated on-chip, and observe electron spin resonance in spin-dependent transport measurements through the two dots. Next, we coherently control the quantum state of the electron spin by applying short bursts of the oscillating magnetic field and observe about eight oscillations of the spin state (so-called Rabi oscillations) during a microsecond burst. These results demonstrate the feasibility of operating single-electron spins in a quantum dot as quantum bits.

Nondestructive Rydberg atom counting with mesoscopic fields in a cavity

We present an efficient, state-selective, nondemolition atom-counting procedure based on the dispersive interaction of a sample of circular Rydberg atoms with a mesoscopic field contained in a high-quality superconducting cavity. The state-dependent atomic index of refraction, proportional to the atom number, shifts the classical field phase. A homodyne procedure translates the information from the phase to the intensity. The final field intensity is readout by a mesoscopic atomic sample. This method opens promising routes for quantum information processing and nonclassical state generation with Rydberg atoms.

Rabi oscillations revival induced by time reversal: a test of mesoscopic quantum coherence

Using an echo technique proposed by Morigi et al., we have time-reversed the atom-field interaction in a cavity quantum electrodynamics experiment. The collapse of the atomic Rabi oscillation in a coherent field is reversed, resulting in an induced revival signal. The amplitude of this "echo" is sensitive to nonunitary decoherence processes. Its observation demonstrates the existence of a mesoscopic quantum superposition of field states in the cavity between the collapse and the revival times.

Entanglement of a mesoscopic field with an atom induced by photon graininess in a cavity

We observe that a mesoscopic field made of several tens of microwave photons exhibits quantum features when interacting with a single Rydberg atom in a high-Q cavity. The field is split into two components whose phases differ by an angle inversely proportional to the square root of the average photon number. The field and the atomic dipole are phase entangled. These manifestations of photon graininess vanish at the classical limit. This experiment opens the way to studies of large quantum state superpositions at the quantum-classical boundary.

Direct measurement of the Wigner function of a one-photon Fock state in a cavity

We have measured the complete Wigner function W of the vacuum and of a single-photon state for a field stored in a high-Q cavity. This experiment implements the direct Lutterbach and Davidovich method [L. G. Lutterbach and L. Davidovich, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2547 (1997)]] and is based on the dispersive interaction of a single circular Rydberg atom with the cavity field. The nonclassical nature of the single-photon field is exhibited by a region of negative W values. Extensions to other nonclassical cavity field states are discussed.