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Physics

Electrons Take Their Places on a Liquid Helium Grid

Kimitoshi Kōno

Published Dec 19, 2011• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Unprecedented transport efficiency is demonstrated for electrons on the surface of micron-scale superfluid helium-filled channels by co-opting silicon processing technology to construct the equivalent of a charge-coupled device.Strong fringing fields lead to undetectably rare transfer failures after over a billion cycles in two dimensions.This extremely efficient transport is measured in 120 channels simultaneously with packets of up to 20 electrons, and down to singly occupied pixels.These results point the way towards the large scale transport of either computational qubits or electron spin qubits used for communications in a hybrid qubit system.

DOI
10.1103/physics.4.110

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Unprecedented transport efficiency is demonstrated for electrons on the surface of micron-scale superfluid helium-filled channels by co-opting silicon processing technology to construct the equivalent of a charge-coupled device.Strong fringing fields lead to undetectably rare transfer failures after over a billion cycles in two dimensions.This extremely efficient transport is measured in 120 channels simultaneously with packets of up to 20 electrons, and down to singly occupied pixels.These results point the way towards the large scale transport of either computational qubits or electron spin qubits used for communications in a hybrid qubit system.
Unprecedented transport efficiency is demonstrated for electrons on the surface of micron-scale superfluid helium-filled channels by co-opting silicon processing technology to construct the equivalent of a charge-coupled device. Strong fringing fields lead to undetectably rare transfer failures after over a billion cycles in two dimensions. This extremely efficient transport is measured in 120 channels simultaneously with packets of up to 20 electrons, and down to singly occupied pixels. These results point the way towards the large scale transport of either computational qubits or electron spin qubits used for communications in a hybrid qubit system.
Electrons floating on the surface of liquid helium are possible spin qubits for quantum information processing. Varying electric potentials are not expected to modify spin states, which allows their transport on helium using a charge-coupled device (CCD)-like array of underlying gates. This approach depends upon efficient intergate transfer of individual electrons. Measurements are presented here of the charge transfer efficiency of few electrons clocked back and forth above a short microscopic CCD-like structure. A charge transfer efficiency of 0.999 999 92 is obtained for a clocking frequency of 800kHz.
Electrons floating on the surface of superfluid helium have been suggested as promising mobile spin quantum bits (qubits). Transferring electrons extremely efficiently in a narrow channel structure with underlying gates has been demonstrated, showing no transfer error while clocking 10 9 pixels in a 3-phase charge coupled device (CCD). While on average, one electron per channel was clocked, it is desirable to reliably obtain a single electron per channel. We have designed an electron turnstile consisting of a narrow (0.8μm) channel and narrow underlying gates (0.5μm) operating across seventy-eight parallel channels. Initially, we find that more than one electron can be held above the small gates. Underlying gates in the turnstile region allow us to repeatedly split these electron packets. Results show a plateau in the electron signal as a function of the applied gate voltages, indicating quantization of the number of electrons per pixel, simultaneously across the seventy-eight parallel channels.
Electrons on the surface of superfluid helium have extremely high mobilities and long predicted spin coherence times, making them ideal mobile qubits. Previous work has shown that electrons localized in helium filled channels can be reliably transported between multiple underlying gates. Silicon chips have been designed, fabricated, and post processed by reactive ion etching to leverage the large scale integration capabilities of silicon technology. These chips, which serve as substrates for the electrons on helium research, utilize silicon CMOS for on-chip signal amplification and multiplexing and the uppermost metal layers for defining the helium channels and applying electrical potentials for moving the electrons. We will discuss experimental results for on-chip circuitry and clocked electron transport along etched channels.
Electrons floating on the surface of liquid helium are possible qubits for quantum information processing. Varying electric potentials do not modify spin states, which allows their transport on helium using a charge-coupled device (CCD)-like array of underlying gates. This scheme depends on an efficient intergate electron transfer and on the absence of electron traps. We will present a measurement of the charge transfer efficiency (CTE) of electrons clocked back and forth above a short CCD-like structure. The CTE obtained at low clocking frequencies is 0.999 with an electron density of about 4electrons∕μm2. We find no evidence for deep electron trapping.
Quantum sensors that harness quantum coherence and entanglement are emerging as powerful tools in many fields, including particle physics, promising unprecedented sensitivity beyond classical detection methods. At the same time, electrons trapped on the surface of liquid helium have emerged as a promising quantum computing, and possibly sensing, platform owing to a nearly impurity-free environment and large predicted coherence times. In this context, single-electron confinement and control using microfabricated traps on helium has been experimentally demonstrated, highlighting the feasibility of scalable qubit architectures on this platform. In line with the DRD5 initiative at CERN, we propose here a sensor concept that uses an entangled pair of electron qubits on superfluid helium for particle physics experiments. We outline the motivation for such spatially and spin-entangled sensors, develop the theoretical formalism for two electrons and their spins and spatial degrees of freedom in a helium-based double-well trap (analogous to a double quantum dot in semiconductor systems), and discuss the potential advantages for detecting rare high-energy events with quantum-enhanced sensitivity. By exploiting quantum entanglement between the two trapped electrons, this sensor concept can surpass classical sensitivity limits, potentially enabling the detection of signals beyond the reach of classical detectors.