Quantum computers, as yet undeveloped, are believed to be
able to solve certain problems exponentially faster than ordinary
computers. One of these problems, number factorization, can be used
to crack public key encryption schemes like RSA, which is widely used
in the internet. The potential of these and other applications has
led to a worldwide race to build the first working quantum computer.
The state of experimental quantum computation is
primitive--neither quantum bits (qubits) nor quantum gates (qugates)
have been demonstrated in a scalable form. In this talk, I will
describe a proposal to create a quantum processor using
ferroelectrically coupled electron spins in Silicon. Quantum
information is stored in the spin of electrons, which form a
conveninent two-level system. The electrons are confined in the
semiconductor (Si) using the static polarization from an epitaxial
ferroelectric. Fast optical gating occurs using the nonlinear
process of optical rectification. Ge quantum dots are used as
"windows" that allow light to initialize or "boot" the quantum
computer. Initial steps toward the development of quantum
information technology using ferroelectric/semiconductor
heterostructures will be presented.
This work is supported by DARPA QuIST through ARO contract
number DAAD-19-01-1-0650.