A system for coherent site-resolved control of an array of neutral-atom qubits, part I

Individually-trapped neutral atoms are a promising technology for scalable quantum computation. Such systems offer high readout fidelity, control over excursions to Rydberg states for qubit interactions, and spatial manipulation of many-atom arrays. Our quantum computer creates qubits from individually trapped 87Sr atoms, whose nuclear spin structure allows us to make use of extremely long-lived qubit states in the electronic ground state, and whose complex level structure enables both fast cooling and reliable shelving. We present our recent progress building and proving out this machine, with an emphasis on state preparation, imaging, and dynamic rearrangement of occupied trap sites. Our machine typically operates by loading atoms into a large 2-dimensional array of optical tweezers, and closed-loop manipulation allows for rearrangement into arbitrary patterns using a secondary set of dynamically controllable traps. We discuss our imaging scheme, including cooling, its limitations, and how we achieve high-fidelity state-selective readout.