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 orbit of another electron at a distance could be realized via the strong Coulomb interaction between the electrons. Consequently, the proposed JC interaction could be utilized to realize a strong orbit-mediated spin-spin coupling and implement the desirable quantum information processing between the distant electrons trapped individually on liquid helium.

• Received 28 March 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.205408