Optically induced spin-to-charge transduction in donor-spin readout

The proposed read-out configuration D⁺D^- for the Kane Si:P architecture [Nature 393, 133 (1998)] depends on spin-dependent electron tunneling between donors, induced adiabatically by surface gates. However, previous work has shown that since the doubly occupied donor state is so shallow the dwell-time of the read-out state is less than the required time for measurement using a single electron transistor. We propose and analyze single-spin read-out using optically induced spin to charge transduction, and show that the top gate biases, required for qubit selection, are significantly less than those demanded by the Kane scheme, thereby increasing the D⁺D^- lifetime. Implications for singlet-triplet discrimination for electron spin qubits are also discussed.