Mesoscopic d-Wave Qubits: Can High-Tc Cuprates Play a Role in Quantum Computing?

Abstract

Due to nontrivial orbital pairing symmetry, surfaces and interfaces of high-Tc superconductors sup- port states which violate time-reversal (T -) symmetry. Such naturally degenerate states, useful as work- ing states of a qubit, are standard for atomic or molecular-size qubit prototypes (e.g. based on nuclear spins), but exceptional for mesoscopic qubits. (In particular, they hold promise of a better scalability.) In these lectures I review the physics of T -breaking on surfaces and interfaces of high-Tc superconductors; then describe existing proposals for high-Tc based qubits and the current state of experiments; Finally, I discuss the decoherence sources in the system, open questions, and future research directions.