Scalable register initialization for quantum computing in an optical lattice

The Mott insulator state created by loading an atomic Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) into an optical lattice may be used as a means to prepare a register of atomic qubits in a quantum computer. Such architecture requires a lattice commensurately filled with atoms, which corresponds to the insulator state only in the limit of zero inter-well tunnelling. We show that a lattice with spatial inhomogeneity created by a quadratic magnetic trapping potential can be used to isolate a subspace in the centre which is impervious to hole-hoping. Components of the wavefunction with more than one atom in any well can be projected out by selective measurement on a molecular photo-associative transition. Maintaining the molecular coupling can sustain a commensurately filled register for the duration of a quantum computation.