Coherent quantum oscillations and echo measurements of a Si charge qubit

Fast quantum oscillations of a charge qubit in a double quantum dot fabricated in a Si/SiGe heterostructure are demonstrated and characterized experimentally. The measured inhomogeneous dephasing time T₂* ranges from 127 ps to 2.1 ns; it depends substantially on how the energy difference of the two qubit states varies with external voltages, consistent with a decoherence process that is dominated by detuning noise (charge noise that changes the asymmetry of the qubit's double-well potential). In the regime with the shortest T₂*, applying a charge-echo pulse sequence increases the measured inhomogeneous decoherence time from 127 to 760 ps, demonstrating that low-frequency noise processes are an important dephasing mechanism.