Abstract We demonstrate key multi-qubit quantum-logic primitives in a dual-species trapped-ion system based on
40 40 Ca
+ + and
88 88 Sr
+ + ions, using two optical qubits with quantum-logic-control frequencies in the red to near-infrared range. With all ionization, cooling, and control wavelengths in a wavelength band similar for the two species and centered in the visible, and with a favorable mass ratio for sympathetic cooling, this pair is a promising candidate for scalable quantum information processing. Same-species and dual-species two-qubit gates, based on the Mølmer–Sørensen interaction and performed in a cryogenic surface-electrode trap, are characterized via the fidelity of generated entangled states; we achieve fidelities of 98.8(2)% and 97.5(2)% in Ca
+ + –Ca
+ + and Sr
+ + –Sr
+ + gates, respectively. For a similar Ca
+ + –Sr
+ + gate, we achieve a fidelity of 94.3(3)%, and carrying out a Sr
+ + –Sr
+ + gate performed with a Ca
+ + sympathetic cooling ion in a Sr
+ + –Ca
+Coherent storage of quantum information is crucial to many quantum technologies. Long coherence times have been demonstrated in trapped-ion qubits, typically using the hyperfine levels within the ground state of a single ion. However, recent research suggests qubits encoded in metastable states could provide architectural benefits for quantum information processing, such as the possibility of effective dual-species operation in a single-species system and erasure-error conversion for fault-tolerant quantum computing. Here we demonstrate long-lived encoding of a quantum state in the metastable states of a trapped ion. By sympathetically cooling with another ion of the same species and constantly monitoring for erasure errors, we demonstrate a coherence time of 136(42) seconds with a qubit encoded in the metastable
5D5/2 state of a single
137Ba
+ ion. In agreement with a model based on empirical results from dynamical-decoupling-based noise spectroscopy, we find that dephasing of the metastable levels is the dominant source of error once erasure errors are removed.