We apply the full power of modern electronic band structure engineering and epitaxial hetero-structures to design a transistor that can sense and control a single donor electron spin. Spin resonance transistors may form the technological basis for quantum information processing. One and two qubit operations are performed by applying a gate bias. The bias electric field pulls the electron wave function away from the dopant ion into layers of different alloy composition. Owing to the variation of the g-factor (Si:g=1.998, Ge:g=1.563), this displacement changes the spin Zeeman energy, allowing single-qubit operations. By displacing the electron even further, the overlap with neighboring qubits is affected, which allows two-qubit operations. Certain Silicon-Germanium alloys allow a qubit spacing as large as 200 nm, which is well within the capabilities of current lithographic techniques. We discuss manufacturing limitations and issues regarding scaling up to a large size computer.

Electromagnetic band structure can produce either an enhancement or a suppression of spontaneous emission from two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystal thin films. We believe that such effects might be important for light emitting diodes. Our experiments were based on thin-film InGaAs/InP 2-D photonic crystals at ambient temperature, but the concepts would apply equally to InGaN thin films, for example. We show that the magnitude of Purcell enhancement factor, F F F p p p 2, for spatially extended band modes, is similar to that for a tiny mode in a three-dimensional (3-D) nanocavity. Nonetheless, light extraction enhancement that arises from Zone folding or Bragg scattering of the photonic bands is probably the more important effect, and an external quantum efficiency >50% is possible. Angle resolved photoluminescence from inside the photonic crystal gives a direct spectral readout of the internal 2-D photonic band dispersion. The tradeoffs for employing various photonic crystal structures in high efficiency light-emitting diodes are analyzed.

We present here algorithmic cooling (via polarization heat bath)-a powerful method for obtaining a large number of highly polarized spins in liquid nuclear-spin systems at finite temperature. Given that spin-half states represent (quantum) bits, algorithmic cooling cleans dirty bits beyond the Shannon's bound on data compression, by using a set of rapidly thermal-relaxing bits. Such auxiliary bits could be implemented by using spins that rapidly get into thermal equilibrium with the environment, e.g., electron spins. Interestingly, the interaction with the environment, usually a most undesired interaction, is used here to our benefit, allowing a cooling mechanism. Cooling spins to a very low temperature without cooling the environment could lead to a breakthrough in NMR experiments, and our ''spin-refrigerating'' method suggests that this is possible. The scaling of NMR ensemble computers is currently one of the main obstacles to building larger-scale quantum computing devices, and our spin-refrigerating method suggests that this problem can be resolved.

We describe a promising thin-slab light-emitting diode ͑LED͒ design, which uses a highly efficient coherent external scattering of trapped light by a two-dimensional ͑2D͒ photonic crystal. The light generation region was an unpatterned heterostructure surrounded by the light extraction region, a thin film patterned as a 2D photonic crystal. A six-fold photoluminescence enhancement was observed compared to an unpatterned thin film LED. That corresponded to 70% external quantum efficiency.

We describe how quantum information may be transferred from photon polarization to electron spin in a semiconductor device. The transfer of quantum information relies on selection rules for optical transitions, such that two superposed photon polarizations excite two superposed spin states. Entanglement of the electron spin state with the spin state of the remaining hole is prevented by using a single, non-degenerate initial valence band. The degeneracy of the valence band is lifted by the combination of strain and a static magnetic field. We give a detailed description of a semiconductor structure that transfers photon polarization to electron spin coherently, and allows electron spins to be stored and to be made available for quantum information processing.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the 11th International Winterschool on New Developments in Solid State Physics, 21 - 25 February, 2000, Mauterndorf, Austria (Physica E, Sept. 2000). 5 pages, 4 figures Revised with updated work on light-hole/heavy-hole selection rule