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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Efficient driving of a spin qubit using single-atom magnets

Jose Reina-Gálvez1,2,3,*,†, Hoang-Anh Le2,3,*, Hong Thi Bui2,4,‡, Soo-hyon Phark2,3, Nicolás Lorente5,6, and Christoph Wolf2,3,§

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: jose.reina-galvez@uni-konstanz.de
  • ‡Present address: Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
  • §Contact author: wolf.christoph@qns.science

Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042055 – Published 8 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qpz5-s6fw

Abstract

The realization of electron-spin resonance at the single-atom level using scanning tunneling microscopy has opened avenues for coherent quantum sensing and quantum state manipulation at the ultimate size limit. This allows us to build many-body Hamiltonians and the study of their complex physical behavior. Recently, a qubit platform has emerged from this field, raising questions about the driving mechanism from single-atom magnets. In this work, we demonstrate how single-atom magnets can be used to drive a nearby single spin qubit efficiently. We show that the modulation of exchange coupling is the primary driving force, which successfully reproduces Rabi rates in the tens of MHz range, consistent with experimental data, while also addressing critical aspects related to the optimization of experimental parameters.

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