Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

The internal spin states of individual neutral atoms are nearly ideal candidates for quantum bits. One key requirement for quantum logic is the ability to generate controlled, state-dependent interactions between qubits.  I will describe experiments in a double-well optical lattice where we isolate and control arrays of pairs of rubidium atoms. Using this lattice we can merge pairs of atoms into the same lattice site, resulting in the required spin-dependent exchange interactions. In addition, we demonstrate how to use light to address atoms spaced below the optical diffraction limit. These basic tools could form the physical basis for a number of recent proposals for quantum information processing that rely heavily on parallel operations.