Electrons on a helium surface form a quasi two-dimensional system which displays the highest mobility reached in condensed matter physics. We propose to use this system as a set of interacting quantum bits. We will briefly describe the system and discuss how the qubits can be addressed and manipulated, including interqubit excitation transfer. The working frequency of the proposed quantum computer is ~1GHz. The relaxation rate can be at least 5 orders of magnitude smaller, for low temperatures.
We propose a physical setup that can be used to simulate the quantum dynamics of the Ising model with present-day technology. Our scheme consists of electrons floating on superfluid helium which interact via Coulomb forces. In the limit of low temperatures, the system will stay near the ground state where its Hamiltonian is equivalent to the Ising model and thus shows phenomena such as quantum criticality. Furthermore, the proposed design could be generalized in order to study interacting field theories (e.g., $λϕ^4$) and adiabatic quantum computers.
The system of electrons trapped in vacuum above the liquid helium surface displays the highest mobilities known in condensed matter physics. We provide a brief summary of the experimental and theoretical results obtained for this system. We then show that a quasi-2D set of N > 10^8 electrons in vacuum trapped in 1D hydrogenic levels above a micron-thick helium film can be used as an easily manipulated strongly interacting set of quantum bits. Individual electrons are laterally confined by micron sized metal pads below the helium. Information is stored in the lowest hydrogenic levels. Using ele…
Piezoelectric surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are powerful for investigating and controlling elementary and collective excitations in condensed matter. In semiconductor two-dimensional electron systems SAWs have been used to reveal the spatial and temporal structure of electronic states, produce quantized charge pumping, and transfer quantum information. In contrast to semiconductors, electrons trapped above the surface of superfluid helium form an ultra-high mobility, two-dimensional electron system home to strongly-interacting Coulomb liquid and solid states, which exhibit non-trivial spatial …
When an electron (or positronium atom) is injected into liquid helium with nearly zero energy, a bubble quickly forms around it. This phenomenon (which also occurs in liquid hydrogen, liquid neon and possibly in solid helium) lowers the mobility of the electron to a value similar to that for a positive ion. We estimate the radius of the bubble at zero pressure and temperature based on the zero point energy of the electron. If the liquid is held in a state of negative pressure, the bubble will expand beyond the radius at zero pressure. We also estimate the negative pressure such that a bubble o…
We describe a quantum computer based on electrons supported by a helium film and localized laterally by small electrodes just under the helium surface. Each qubit is made of combinations of the ground and first excited state of an electron trapped in the image potential well at the surface. Mechanisms for preparing the initial state of the qubit, operations with the qubits, and a proposed readout are described. This system is, in principle, capable of 100,000 operations in a decoherence time.
We propose a frequency-mixed effect of Terahertz (THz) and Gigahertz (GHz) electromagnetic waves in the cryogenic system of electrons floating on liquid helium surface. The THz wave is near-resonant with the transition frequency between the lowest two levels of surface state electrons. The GHz wave does not excite the transitions but generates a GHz-varying Stark effect with the symmetry-breaking eigenstates of electrons on liquid helium. We show an effective coupling between the inputting THz and GHz waves, which appears at the critical point that the detuning between electrons and THz wave i…
Jaynes-Cummings model is a typical model in quantum optics and has been realized with various physical systems (e.g, cavity QED, trapped ions, and circuit QED etc..) of two-level atoms interacting with quantized bosonic fields. Here, we propose a new implementation of this model by using a single classical laser beam to drive an electron floating on liquid Helium. Two lowest levels of the {\it vertical} motion of the electron acts as a two-level "atom", and the quantized vibration of the electron along one of the {\it parallel} directions, e.g., $x$-direction, serves the bosonic mode. These tw…
We propose an approach to entangle spins of electrons floating on liquid helium by coherently manipulating their spin-orbit interactions. The configuration consists of single electrons, confined individually on liquid helium by the microelectrodes, moving along the surface as the harmonic oscillators. It has been known that the spin of an electron could be coupled to its orbit (i.e., the vibrational motion) by properly applying a magnetic field. Based on this single electron spin-orbit coupling, here we show that a Jaynes-Cummings (JC) type interaction between the spin of an electron and the o…
Any systems with symmetry-breaking eigenstates can effectively radiate photons with doubled frequency of the incident light, which is known as the second harmonic generation. Here, we study the second-order nonlinear effects with the system of surface-state electrons on liquid Helium. Due to the symmetry-breaking eigenstates, we show that a Rabi oscillation between two levels of the surface-state electrons can be realized beyond the usual resonant driving. Consequently, an electromagnetic field with the doubled frequency of the applied driving could be effectively radiated. This can be regarde…
We analyze the experimental data on inelastic neutron scattering by a thin ~5-atomic-layer film of liquid helium at three different temperatures: T=0.4K, 0.98K and 1.3K. These data were partially published previously, but here we present them in a better quality and at various temperatures. The neutron scattering intensity plots, in addition to the previously know dispersion of phonons and ripplons, suggest a branch of gapped surface excitations with activation energy $\sim 4.5$K and the dispersion similar to that expected for surfons - the bound quantum states of helium atoms above liquid hel…
We report the first direct observation of the decay of the excited-state population in electrons trapped on the surface of liquid helium. The relaxation dynamics, which are governed by inelastic scattering processes in the system, are probed by the real-time response of the electrons to a pulsed microwave excitation. Comparison with theoretical calculations allows us to establish the dominant mechanisms of inelastic scattering for different temperatures. The longest measured relaxation time is around 1 us at the lowest temperature of 135 mK, which is determined by the inelastic scattering due …
We study dissipation effects for electrons on the surface of liquid helium, which may serve as qubits of a quantum computer. Each electron is localized in a 3D potential well formed by the image potential in helium and the potential from a submicron electrode submerged into helium. We estimate parameters of the confining potential and characterize the electron energy spectrum. Decay of the excited electron state is due to two-ripplon scattering and to scattering by phonons in helium. We identify mechanisms of coupling to phonons and estimate contributions from different scattering mechanisms. …
Liquid He-4 is free from magnetic defects, making it an ideal substrate for electrons with long-lived spin states. Such states can serve as qubit states. Here we consider the spin states of electrons electrostatically localized in quantum dots on a helium surface. Efficient gate operations in this system require spin-orbit coupling. It can be created by a nonuniform magnetic field from a current-carrying wire, can be turned on and off, and allows one to obtain large electro-dipole moment and comparatively fast coupling of spins in neighboring dots. Of central importance is to understand the sp…
We report on the direct observation of the thermoelectric transport in a nondegenerate correlated electron system formed on the surface of liquid helium. We find that the microwave-induced excitation of the vertical transitions of electrons between the surface-bound states leads to their lateral flow, which we were able to detect by employing a segmented electrode configuration. We show that this flow of electrons arises due to the Seebeck effect, thus our method provides a new tool to study thermoelectricity in a disorder-free correlated electron system. Our experimental results are in good a…
Single electrons can be conceived as the simplest quantum nodes in a quantum network. Between electrons, single photons can act as quantum channels to exchange quantum information. Despite this appealing picture, in conventional materials, it is extremely difficult to make individual electrons and photons coherently interact with each other at the visible-infrared wavelengths suitable for long-distance communication. Here we theoretically demonstrate that the self-confined single-electron structure in condensed helium-4 can be a fascinating candidate for single-electron quantum nodes. Each ele…
