We use trapped ⁸⁸Sr⁺ ions as a physical implementation of qubits. A qubit can be encoded in the S_1/2 and D_5/2 electronic levels of the ion (optical qubit).  To manipulate this qubit a narrow linewidth laser at a wavelength of 674nm is required. The qubit can also be encoded in the Zeeman splitted states of the S_1/2 ground state of the ion. In this case a 674nm laser is used to map the Zeeman qubit to an optical one for state-selective fluorescence detection. Using a narrow linewidth diode laser at 674nm we demonstrate high fidelity manipulations on both qubit types. We also demonstrate control of ion’s external degrees of freedom by achieving ground state cooling.