State preparation, qubit rotation, and high fidelity readout are demonstrated for two separate baseven qubit types. First, an optical qubit on the narrow 6S$_{1/2}$ to 5D$_{5/2}$ transition at 1.76 $mu$m is implemented. Then, leveraging the technique
s developed there for readout, a ground state hyperfine qubit using the magnetically insensitive transition at 8 GHz is accomplished.
Individually trapped 137Ba+ in an RF Paul trap is proposed as a qubit ca ndidate, and its various benefits are compared to other ionic qubits. We report the current experimental status of using this ion for quantum computation. Fut ure plans and prospects are discussed.
An inexpensive, easily programmed microcontroller is demonstrated for the fast frequency stabilization of an infrared fiber laser. The microcontroller manages all digitalization and processing, with external circuitry only providing buffering, amplif
ication and overvoltage protection. Several convenient features are included to recover from common failure modes of a laser lock system, and a final Nyquist frequency of 200 kHz is obtained, corresponding to a usable bandwidth of 40-60 kHz.
