Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

AN ELECTRIC SPIN ON ELECTRONS: NEED FOR AN HIGH-FREQUENCY VECTOR SOURCE The sheer rapidity at which a computer processes information is due to the facility to manipulate and concentrate electric charges. The elemental carrier of the electric charge, the electron, also performs an action that could very well revolutionize the information technologies. Effectively, the electron turns, or spins, on itself. This rotation, directed by the laws of quantum mechanics, shows new and futuristic characteristics. By measuring the rotation degree around a main axis, an observer will always obtain one of two results: either the electron spins at a certain speed clockwise, or the electron spins at the same speed anti-clockwise. Furthermore, using electric fields, it is possible to excite the electron up to a state where it turns in both directions simultaneously: effectively producing a quantum gate. The instruments requested will be used to precisely control these quantum gates by generating high-frequency electric pulses applied to the sample. These one-electron spin operations are crucial for my research program aiming at manipulating quantum information using electron spins. This will set a milestone in the race to build the first large-scale quantum computer, a technological revolution that will execute tasks extremely faster than the conventional computer. This research program will significantly contribute to the advancement of Canadian research in quantum information. It will also provide with a state-of-the-art university laboratory and expertise for the formation of researchers and engineers eager to work in this extremely promising field.