Numerous physical systems have been proposed for constructing quantum computers, but formidable obstacles stand in the way of making even modest systems with a few hundred quantum bits (qubits). Several approaches utilize the spin of an electron as the qubit. Here it is suggested that the spin of electrons floating on the surface of liquid helium will make excellent qubits. These electrons can be electrostatically held and manipulated much like electrons in semiconductor heterostructures, but being in a vacuum the spins on helium suffer much less decoherence. In particular, the spin-orbit interaction is reduced so that moving the qubits with voltages applied to gates has little effect on their coherence. Remaining sources of decoherence are considered, and it is found that coherence times for electron spins on helium can be expected to exceed 100s. It is shown how to obtain a controlled-NOT operation between two qubits using the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction.
We study the quantum computational power of a generic class of anisotropic solid-state Hamiltonians. A universal set of encoded logic operations are found, which do away with difficult-to-implement single-qubit gates in a number of quantum-computer proposals, e.g., quantum dots and donor atom spins with anisotropic exchange coupling, quantum Hall systems, and electrons floating on helium. We show how to make the corresponding Hamiltonians universal by encoding one qubit into two physical qubits, and by controlling nearest-neighbor interactions.
In this review, we introduce a developing qubit platform: floating-electron-based qubits. Electrons floating in a vacuum above the surface of liquid helium or solid neon emerge as promising candidates for qubits, especially due to their expected long coherence times. Despite being in the early stages, a variety of recent experiments from different groups have shown substantial potential in this role. We survey a range of theoretical proposals and recent experiments, primarily focusing on the use of the spin state as the qubit state, wherein the spin and charge states are hybridized. Throughout these proposals and experiments, the charge state is coupled to an LC resonator, which facilitates both the control and readout mechanisms for the spin state via an artificially introduced spin–charge coupling.