Quantum computing with electrons floating on liquid helium

A quasi-two-dimensional set of electrons (1 < N < 10(9)) in vacuum, trapped in one-dimensional hydrogenic levels above a micrometer-thick film of liquid helium, is proposed as an easily manipulated strongly interacting set of quantum bits. Individual electrons are laterally confined by micrometer-sized metal pads below the helium. Information is stored in the lowest hydrogenic levels. With electric fields, at temperatures of 10(-2) kelvin, changes in the wave function can be made in nanoseconds. Wave function coherence times are 0.1 millisecond. The wave function is read out with an inverted dc voltage, which releases excited electrons from the surface.

[1]  B. E. Kane.  A silicon-based nuclear spin quantum computer , 1998, Nature.

[2]  D. DiVincenzo,et al.  Quantum information is physical , 1997, cond-mat/9710259.

[3]  J. Preskill.  Reliable quantum computers , 1997, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[4]  D. DiVincenzo,et al.  Quantum computation with quantum dots , 1997, cond-mat/9701055.

[5]  Lov K. Grover.  Quantum Mechanics Helps in Searching for a Needle in a Haystack , 1997, quant-ph/9706033.

[6]  E. Andrei.  Two-dimensional electron systems on helium and other cryogenic substrates , 1997 .

[7]  Anthony J. G. Hey,et al.  Feynman Lectures on Computation , 1996 .

[8]  K. Kono,et al.  Surface study of liquid3He using surface state electrons , 1995 .

[9]  J. Cirac,et al.  Quantum Computations with Cold Trapped Ions. , 1995, Physical review letters.

[10]  S Lloyd,et al.  A Potentially Realizable Quantum Computer , 1993, Science.

[11]  Saville,et al.  Single electron tunneling from bound states on the surface of liquid helium. , 1993, Physical review letters.

[12]  W. Vinen,et al.  Electrons and Ions at the Helium Surface , 1987 .

[13]  C. C. Grimes,et al.  Evidence for a Liquid-to-Crystal Phase Transition in a Classical, Two-Dimensional Sheet of Electrons , 1979 .

[14]  M. Dykman.  Theory of Cyclotron Resonance of Two‐Dimensional Electrons Interacting With Surface and Volume Phonons , 1978 .

[15]  M. L. Burns,et al.  Spectroscopy of electrons in image-potential--induced surface states outside liquid helium , 1976 .

[16]  E. M. Lifshitz,et al.  Quantum mechanics: Non-relativistic theory, , 1959 .