  It has recently been demonstrated that surface acoustic waves (SAWs) can
interact with superconducting qubits at the quantum level. SAW resonators in
the GHz frequency range have also been found to have low loss at temperatures
compatible with superconducting quantum circuits. These advances open up new
possibilities to use the phonon degree of freedom to carry quantum information.
In this paper, we give a description of the basic SAW components needed to
develop quantum circuits, where propagating or localized SAW-phonons are used
both to study basic physics and to manipulate quantum information. Using
phonons instead of photons offers new possibilities which make these quantum
acoustic circuits very interesting. We discuss general considerations for SAW
experiments at the quantum level and describe experiments both with SAW
resonators and with interaction between SAWs and a qubit. We also discuss
several potential future developments.
