Generic Hubbard model description of semiconductor quantum-dot spin qubits

We introduce a Hubbard model as the simple quantum generalization of the classical capacitance circuit model to study semiconductor quantum-dot spin qubits. We prove theoretically that our model is equivalent to the usual capacitance circuit model in the absence of quantum fluctuations. However, our model naturally includes quantum effects such as hopping and spin exchange. The parameters of the generalized Hubbard model can either be directly read off from the experimental plot of the stability diagram or be calculated from the microscopic theory, establishing a quantitative connection between the two. We show that, while the main topology of the charge stability diagram is determined by the ratio between intersite and on-site Coulomb repulsion, fine details of the stability diagram reveal information about quantum effects. Extracting quantum information from experiments using our Hubbard model approach is simple, but would require the measurement resolution to increase by an order of magnitude. © 2011 American Physical Society.