In the effort to develop disruptive quantum technologies, germanium is emerging as a versatile material to realize devices capable of encoding, processing and transmitting quantum information.
These devices leverage the special properties of holes in germanium, such as their inherently strong spin–orbit coupling and their ability to host superconducting pairing correlations.
In a paper, scientists has reviewed the Germanium opportunities for quantum technology.
They have started by introducing the physics of holes in low-dimensional germanium structures, providing key insights from a theoretical perspective. They have then examined the materials-science progress underpinning germanium-based planar heterostructures and nanowires. They went on to review the most significant experimental results demonstrating key building blocks for quantum technology, such as an electrically driven universal quantum gate set with spin qubits in quantum dots and superconductor–semiconductor devices for hybrid quantum systems.
We concluded this review by identifying the most promising avenues towards scalable quantum information processing in germanium-based systems.
The paper has been published in Nature Reviews Materials.