Strong coupling between a photon and a hole spin in silicon

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.