Altermagnetic Quantum Dots and Straintronic Nanomagnets Advance Spin Qubit Technology

Researchers led by José Carlos Abadillo-Uriel propose using altermagnetic semiconductors to build spin qubits without external magnetic fields. By shaping quantum dots, the qubit splitting can be tuned electrically, and the design suppresses longitudinal electric‑field noise at leading order, reducing a major source of dephasing. The team demonstrates single‑qubit control via electric‑dipole spin resonance and two‑qubit gates with tunable exchange, showing a pathway to electrically addressable, field‑free quantum processors.

In a separate dissertation, Rahnuma Rahman of Virginia Commonwealth University investigates nanomagnetic devices that exploit strain (straintronics) for unconventional computing. Strain‑operated magnetic tunnel junctions enable low‑energy matrix multiplication and non‑volatile storage, while engineered energy landscapes turn nanomagnets into stochastic binary, analog, and ternary neurons for probabilistic, neuromorphic, and collective computing. The work links device physics to hardware concepts, highlighting the energy efficiency and functional versatility of straintronic nanomagnets.