Laser cooling, trapping, and Rydberg spectroscopy of neutral holmium atoms

This thesis focuses on progress towards using ensembles of neutral holmium for use in quantum computing operations. We are particularly interested in using a switchable interaction between neutral atoms, the Rydberg blockade, to implement a universal set of quantum gates in a collective encoding scheme that presents many benefits over quantum computing schemes which rely on physically distinct qubits. We show that holmium is uniquely suited for operations in a collective encoding basis because it has 128 ground hyperfine states, the largest number of any stable, neutral atom. Holmium is a rare earth atom that is very poorly described for our purposes as it has never been cooled and trapped, its spectrum is largely unknown, and it presents several unique experimental challenges related to its complicated atomic structure and short wavelength transitions.;We demonstrate important progress towards overcoming these challenges. We produce the first laser cooling and trapping of holmium into a MOT. Because we use a broad cooling transition, our cooling technique does not require the use of a Zeeman slower. Using MOT depletion spectroscopy, we provide precise measurements of holmium's Rydberg states and its ionization potential. Our work continues towards cooling holmium into a dipole trap by calculating holmium's AC polarizability and demonstrating the results of early attempts at an optical dipole trap. We provide details of future upgrades to the experimental apparatus and discuss interesting potential for using holmium in quantum computing using single atoms in a magnetically trapped lattice. This thesis shows several promising indicators for continued work in this field.