Advanced processing apparatus

1. A processing element for an advanced processing apparatus, the processing element comprising:

a layer of silicon material and a layer of dielectric material forming an interface with the layer of silicon material;

a confining arrangement for confining one or more electrons or holes in the silicon to form a quantum dot; and

a control arrangement for controlling a quantum property of the quantum dot to operate the quantum dot as a qubit;

wherein the electrical properties of the layer of dielectric material, the confining arrangement, and the control arrangement are such that the layer of dielectric material, the confining arrangement, and the control arrangement are manufacturable using a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor manufacturing line.

2. A processing element in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the control arrangement comprises a control arranged to tune the quantum dot so that the energy at which the state of the qubit is affected can be adjusted over a range of energy values.

3. A processing element in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the quantum property comprises electron or hole spin.

4. A processing element in accordance with claim 1 wherein the confining arrangement is adapted to confine one or more electrons or holes to form a pair of quantum dots and the control arrangement is adapted to control a singlet and triplet state of the pair of quantum dots to encode qubit logic states.

5. A processing element in accordance with claim 1 wherein the confining arrangement is adapted to confine one or more electrons or holes to form at least three quantum dots and the control arrangement is adapted to control spin states of the at least three quantum dots to encode qubit logic states.

6. A processing element in accordance with claim 2 wherein the qubit logic states are controlled by voltages applied to the control arrangement to tune an exchange interaction between spins of electrons or holes in one or more of the quantum dots.

7. A processing element in accordance with claim 2 , the control comprising a gate electrode arranged to have a voltage applied to tune the electron or hole spin resonance frequency.

8. A processing element in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the control arrangement is arranged to apply a signal at the frequency to which the ESR of the qubit is tuned.

9. A processing element in accordance with claim 8 , wherein the control arrangement comprises a transmission line integrated with the Si material in proximity to the quantum dot, so as to be able to affect the spin of the electron or hole.

10. A processing element in accordance with claim 8 , wherein the control arrangement comprises a generator for bathing the processing element in electromagnetic radiation for affecting the spin of the electron or hole.

11. A processing element in accordance with claim 7 , comprising a read out arrangement for reading the state of the qubit; the read out arrangement comprising a single electron transistor (SET) or a quantum point contact (QPC) arranged to detect an electron or hole tunneling event and an electrode capacitively coupled to the processing element.

12. A processing element in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the confining arrangement comprises one or more gate electrodes arranged to have a voltage applied to produce an electrostatic field to confine electrons or holes to form the quantum dot.

13. An advanced processing apparatus, comprising a plurality of processing elements in accordance with claim 1 , arranged in an array within a Si substrate.

14. An advanced processing apparatus in accordance with claim 13 , comprising an exchange control arrangement for controlling an exchange interaction between a plurality of processing elements, to implement quantum processing.

15. An advanced processing apparatus in accordance with claim 13 , wherein the control arrangement comprises a control arranged to tune the quantum dot so that the energy at which the state of the qubit is affected can be adjusted over a range of energy values, and wherein the control arrangement is implemented in the advanced processing apparatus by one or more control lines which are arranged to interact with the plurality of processing elements in a manner such that each processing element is individually addressable or the processing elements are addressable in groups.

16. A method of operation of a quantum processing element, the processing element comprising;

a layer of silicon material and a layer of dielectric material forming an interface with the layer of silicon material;

a confining arrangement for confining one or more electrons or holes in the silicon to form a quantum dot; and

a control arrangement for controlling a quantum property of the quantum dot to operate the quantum dot as a qubit;

wherein the electrical properties of the layer of dielectric material, the confining arrangement, and the control arrangement are such that the layer of dielectric material, the confining arrangement, and the control arrangement are manufacturable using a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor manufacturing line; and

wherein the method comprises the step of applying a signal via the control arrangement to control the status of the qubit.

17. A method in accordance with claim 16 , comprising the further step of applying a further control signal to tune the quantum dot so the energy at which the state of the qubit is affected is adjusted to an energy value from a range of available energy values.

18. A method in accordance with claim 16 wherein the confining arrangement is arranged to confine one or more electrons or holes to form a pair of quantum dots and the control arrangement is arranged to control a singlet and triplet state of the pair of quantum dots to encode qubit logic states, the method comprising the step of applying a signal via the control arrangement to control the state of the qubit.

19. A method in accordance with claim 16 comprising the step of applying voltage signals to the control arrangement to control the qubit logic states by tuning an exchange interaction between spins of electrons or holes in one or more of the quantum dots.

20. A method of implementing a quantum processing element, comprising the steps of applying an electric field to form a quantum dot at an interface between silicon and a dielectric, and applying an electromagnetic field to affect a quantum state of the quantum dot.

21. A method in accordance with claim 20 , comprising the step of applying a further electromagnetic field to tune the quantum dot so the energy at which the state of quantum dot is affected is adjusted to an energy value from a range of available energy values.