This is a picture of a silicon chip designed to trap and control electrons floating on the surface of liquid helium. The electrons are being tested for use as quantum bits, or qubits, for quantum information processing.

The electrons are trapped over the three small pink areas near the center, and the vertical gold-colored lines on either side control the helium depth by the voltages applied to them. This is a white-light photograph, and the colors are the natural colors of the different materials and layers in the chip.