Towards a dual-species alkaline-earth atom array

Neutral atom arrays are a versatile platform for quantum computing, simulation, and metrology. With highly coherent, single-atom control, alkaline-earth atom arrays have enabled pioneering work on quantum-enhanced metrology with optical clocks. Despite remarkable progress, challenges remain, in particular with scalability and arbitrary high-fidelity operations. 

We report progress towards a strontium–ytterbium atom array designed to address these challenges. The dual-species architecture will enable independent state preparation, sensing, and readout with negligible crosstalk for mid-circuit measurements and feedback, as relevant for multi-ensemble metrology. Moreover, we plan to leverage continuous reloading for zero-dead-time metrology and iterative assembly of significantly larger systems. We envision this experiment will advance atom-array-based optical clocks and unlock novel capabilities such as quantum-computing-enhanced sensing. Furthermore, a dual-species platform offers broader advantages for optical clocks, such as the use of interspecies sensitivities for reducing systematics or probing fundamental physics.