Tracking spin qubit frequency variations over 912 days

Abstract

Solid-state qubits are sensitive to their microscopic environment, causing the qubit properties to fluctuate on a wide range of timescales. The sub-Hz end of the spectrum is usually dealt with by repeated background calibrations, which bring considerable overhead. It is thus important to characterize and understand the low-frequency variations of the relevant qubit characteristics. In this study, we investigate the stability of spin qubit frequencies in the Si/SiGe quantum dot platform. We find that the calibrated qubit frequencies of a six-qubit device vary by up to $\pm 100$ MHz while performing a variety of experiments over a span of 912 days. These variations are sensitive to the precise voltage settings of the gate electrodes, however when these are kept constant to within 15 $\mathrmμ$V, the qubit frequencies vary by less than $\pm 7$ MHz over periods up to 36 days. During overnight scans, the qubit frequencies of ten qubits across two different devices show a standard deviation below 200 kHz within a 1-hour time window. The qubit frequency noise spectral density shows roughly a $1/f$ trend above $10^{-4}$ Hz and, strikingly, a steeper trend at even lower frequencies.