Thermal degradation of semiconductor qubit inverter operation in narrow band-gap materials

Recently, quantum computing has received a great deal of focus as a possible means of achieving rapid computational speeds when compared with that of classical computation. Nonetheless, in many of the current implementations of a “quantum computer”, the semiconductor platform has been largely overlooked. It has been previously demonstrated that it is possible to form the NOT gate in a coupled semiconductor waveguide structure in III–V materials. However, to this point, investigations have not included the effects of non-zero temperature on the system. It is crucial to determine what effect temperature has on the system. We present results of a semiconductor waveguide inverter in GaAs and InAs with non-zero thermal effects included in the simulation. The behavior of the device clearly shows that with the inclusion of thermal effects in these materials, waveguide NOT gate function is still possible. Nevertheless, care must be taken when selecting the operational values of the inverter as shifts in the I–V curves occur which could cause unwanted operation of the inverter.