Alkaline-Earth-Metal Atoms as Few-Qubit Quantum Registers

We propose and analyze a novel approach to quantum information processing, in which multiple qubits can be encoded and manipulated using electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom associated with individual alkaline-earth atoms trapped in an optical lattice. Specifically, we describe how the qubits within each register can be individually manipulated and measured with sub-wavelength optical resolution. We also show how such few-qubit registers can be coupled to each other in optical superlattices via conditional tunneling to form a scalable quantum network. Finally, potential applications to quantum computation and precision measurements are discussed.