Many-body physics with alkaline-earth Rydberg lattices

We explore the prospects for confining alkaline-earth Rydberg atoms in an optical lattice via optical dressing of the secondary core-valence electron. Focussing on the particular case of strontium, we identify experimentally accessible magic wavelengths for simultaneous trapping of ground and Rydberg states. A detailed analysis of relevant loss mechanisms shows that the overall lifetime of such a system is limited only by the spontaneous decay of the Rydberg state, and is not significantly affected by photoionization or autoionization. The van der Waals C sub(6) coefficients for the Sr(5sns super(1)S sub(0)) Rydberg series are calculated, and we find that the interactions are attractive. Finally we show that the combination of magic-wavelength lattices and attractive interactions could be exploited to generate many-body Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states.