Jun Ye

  • Photo of Jun Ye
    JILA Fellow Jun Ye has been elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation鈥檚 oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. His election recognizes his extraordinary contributions to physics and quantum science, including pioneering advances in optical atomic clocks, precision measurement, and quantum many-body physics.
  • Jun Ye
    JILA Fellow Jun Ye has been elected a corresponding member abroad of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (脰sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, OeAW), recognizing his internationally influential contributions to physics and quantum science. Election to the OeAW honors scholars whose work has had a profound impact well beyond Austria and reflects exceptional standing within the global research community.
  • A Crystalline Coated 6cm Silicon Cavity
    JILA researchers, working with collaborators in Germany, demonstrated that new crystalline mirror coatings dramatically reduce atomic-level noise in optical cavities, enabling lasers with record鈥慴reaking frequency stability. By outperforming traditional coatings by a factor of four, these mirrors open the door to more precise experiments and future advances in technologies such as atomic clocks and gravitational鈥憌ave detection.
  • Artistic representation of a 229Th nucleus hosted inside a CaF2 crystal experiencing a local electric field gradient. The 229Th nuclear electric quadrupole moment interacts with the electric field, leading to split energy levels.
    JILA researchers have taken a major step toward realizing next鈥慻eneration nuclear clocks by studying how thorium鈥慸oped crystals behave over time. In new experiments published in Nature, the team tracked the stability, temperature response, and reproducibility of three calcium鈥慺luoride crystals containing different concentrations of thorium. Over nearly a year of measurements, all three crystals demonstrated remarkably stable nuclear transition frequencies鈥攁n essential requirement for building reliable nuclear clocks.
  • Photo of Kai Li
    Dr. Kai Li, a researcher in the Jun Ye Group, has been named the recipient of the 2026 European XFEL Young Scientist Award. This prestigious honor is awarded annually to an early-career scientist who has made exceptional contributions through experiments conducted at the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL).
  • Narrowline Laser Cooling and Spectroscopy of Molecules via Stark States
    In a study published in Physical Review X Quantum, a team led by JILA and NIST Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Jun Ye has demonstrated鈥攆or the first time鈥攏arrow-line laser cooling of a molecule. By utilizing a previously unaddressed transition in the diatomic molecule yttrium monoxide (YO), the researchers have developed a new approach to manipulate internal states and molecular motion with unprecedented precision.
  • Jun Ye
    UNESCO named physicist Jun Ye to its Quantum 100 list鈥攁 catalogue of some of the top leaders around the world in the rapidly growing field of quantum science.
  • Jun Ye named a Highly Cited Researcher of 2025
    JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye has once again been recognized as one of the world鈥檚 most influential scientists. For the 12th year in a row, Ye has earned a place on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list, an honor reserved for researchers whose work ranks among the top 1% of citations globally across their fields.
  • A round glass cell (centre, in black frame) is designed to hold a gas of molecules cooled to 50 billionths of a Kelvin.
    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $625 million investment to advance the next phase of the National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, a cornerstone of the National Quantum Initiative. This funding will support five centers dedicated to accelerating quantum technologies that promise transformative impacts on science, industry, and national security. JILA is proud to remain a key partner in QSA through the Q-SEnSE Center, which focuses on quantum sensing and precision measurement.
  • Artistic representation of an atomic clock breaking the Standard Quantum Limit
    In a new study, researchers led by JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye have shown how to make atomic clocks even more precise by leveraging entanglement. This allows the atoms to 鈥渢ick鈥 more in sync, reducing the randomness that usually limits how precisely we can measure time.

    Their results show that it鈥檚 possible to go beyond what鈥檚 known as the听Standard Quantum Limit (SQL)鈥攁 fundamental barrier in quantum measurements鈥攂y using a technique called听spin squeezing. This work could help improve everything from GPS systems to tests of gravity and the nature of the universe.
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