Supervisor: Klaus Mølmer

During the last decades silicon-based technologies have enabled the classical computer to lead humanity through the digital revolution and toward an information age, with the processing power of a modern cell phone’s CPU easily surpassing the computers that set the first man on the Moon as well as the first supercomputer that defeated Kasparov in a game of chess.

The ease of fabrication and scalability of silicon-based technologies are desirable properties for the qubit of the future quantum computer, and recent experiments have demonstrated the use of spin impurities in silicon for quantum computational purposes. But how do we address a single spin in a solid state system in order to control it? And how are we able to measure the state of this single spin?

During this colloquium we will answer these questions by taking a closer look at this silicon-based spin qubit – both from a theoretical as well as experimental point of view – and discuss whether it is a suitable technology for future quantum computers.