Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 11, 2025

Generation and Coherent Control of Pulsed Quantum Frequency Combs
Published on: June 8, 2018
Compromise-free scaling of qubit speed and coherence
Miguel J Carballido1, Simon Svab2, Rafael S Eggli2
1Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, Basel, Switzerland. miguel.carballido@unibas.ch.
None:
Across leading qubit platforms, a common trade-off persists: increasing coherence comes at the cost of operational speed, reflecting the notion that protecting a qubit from its noisy surroundings also limits control over it. This speed-coherence dilemma limits qubit performance across various technologies. Here, we demonstrate a hole spin qubit in a Ge/Si core/shell nanowire that triples its Rabi frequency while simultaneously quadrupling its Hahn-echo coherence time, boosting the Q-factor by over an order of magnitude. This is enabled by the direct Rashba spin-orbit interaction, emerging from heavy-hole-light-hole mixing through strong confinement in two dimensions. Tuning a gate voltage causes this interaction to peak, providing maximum drive speed and a point where the qubit is optimally protected from charge noise, allowing speed and coherence to scale together. Our proof-of-concept shows that careful dot design can overcome a long-standing limitation, offering a new approach towards building high-performance, fault-tolerant qubits.
Related Concept Videos
Spin–Spin Coupling Constant: Overview
Qualitatively, any spin plus-half nucleus polarizes the spins of its electrons to the minus-half state. Consequently, the paired electron in the hydrogen–carbon bond must...
Distribution of Molecular Speeds
Fermi Level Dynamics
Electron affinity in semiconductors refers to the energy gap between the minimum of its conduction band and the vacuum level and it is a critical parameter in determining how easily a semiconductor can accept additional electrons.
The work...
Propagation Speed of Electromagnetic Waves
Speed of a Transverse Wave
One of the key properties of any wave is the wave speed. Light...
The Quantum-Mechanical Model of an Atom

