We analyze the dynamics of a continuously observed, damped, microwave-driven solid state charge qubit, consisting of a single electron in a double well potential. The microwave field induces transitions between the qubit eigenstates, which have a profound effect on the detector output current. Useful information about the qubit dynamics, such as dephasing and relaxation rates, and the Rabi frequency, can be extracted from the detector conductance and output noise power spectrum. We also propose a technique for single-shot electron spin readout, for spin based quantum information processing, which has a number of practical advantages over existing schemes.

• Received 9 December 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.017405