Abstract: Quantum processing of information requires the development of quantum systems which are at the same time coherent and quantum in nature, and yet easily manipulated to process and extract classical information. To meet this challenge we have embarked on the development of technologies which would allow us to design and build nano-scale scalable and coherent solid state systems using elementary building blocks such as single electron spins, single excitons, and single photons using semiconductor quantum dots. We show how gated quantum dots allow to localize individual electrons, control their spin properties by their number, form of confinement, and the magnetic field, enabling nano-spintronics. The spin can be probed and exploited by connecting quantum dots to spin polarized reservoirs. The resulting spectroscopic tool, the spin blockade spectroscopy, will be described as well as a prototype nano-spintronic device, the “single spin transistor”. By combining the single spin transistors into coherently coupled devices one is attempting to build an electron spin-based quantum computer. I will describe double and triple quantum dots and extrapolate to the exciting physics such new capabilities enable. In order to combine the control over spin with the control over photons we need to confine both electrons and valence holes. This is done by transferring the gated technology to self-assembled quantum dots. I will review progress in our understanding of the electronic and optical properties of InAs-based self-assembled quantum dots emitting at 1.5micron. By combining lithography with self-assembly single InAs dots can be positioned on InP nanotemplates. This control allows integration of quantum dots with photonic cavities and opens up possibility of “manufacturing” a single photon gun for quantum cryptography and communication. Finally, building on the newly acquired capabilities with quantum dots we will venture into combining information processing and storage using quantum dots containing both electrons and magnetic ions, a step toward control of magnetism on nanoscale.

*in collaboration with A.Sachrajda, M.Korkusinski,and R.Williams.

Biography: Dr. Pawel Hawrylak received PhD in Condensed Matter Theory from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky, USA, in 1984, did postdoctoral research at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA, and joined the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in 1987. He is currently Principal Research Officer and Leader of the Quantum Theory Group at the Institute for Microstructural Sciences (IMS) as well as Adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of Ottawa and a member of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) Nanoelectronics Programme. His interests in last 20 years were focused on theoretical and computational nanoscience, and in particular on the electronic and optical properties of correlated electrons in semiconductor nanostructures for quantum information, nano-spintronics, and nano-photonics. Dr. Hawrylak is a co-author of thebook, Quantum Dots, published by Springer-Verlag (1998), and is author and co-author of well over 180 publications and reviews in condensed matter physics and nanoscience. In 1996, Dr. Hawrylak was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, in 1999 he received the Humboldt Research Award, in 2002 he received the Canadian Association of Physicists’ Brockhouse Medal for outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics, and in 2003 NRC Outstanding Research Award for the development of "single spin transistor". In 2005 Dr.Hawrylak was appointed “Professor Titular of Physical Sciences” by the President of Poland. In 2006 he was appointed Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada: Canadian Academies of Science. Dr. Hawrylak is an Associate Editor of Solid State

Communications, Canadian Journal of Physics, is a member of the Editorial Boards of Physica E: low dimensional structures. In 2005 he was elected secretary of International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Commission on Semiconductors and in 2006 he became a member of the IUPAP Nanoscience Working Group.