Investigation of planar Coulomb crystals for quantum simulation and computation

Planar Coulomb crystals have been recently proposed for implementing large-scale quantum simulation and computation. We investigate the structure and properties of planar Coulomb crystals in both Penning and rf traps. We also analyze in detail the effects of rf-heating and collisions with background gas and estimate the achievable fidelity of quantum gates. The prospects for the experimental implementation of this quantum computation proposal are discussed.