Research Highlights
In a new study published in Scientific Reports, JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Andreas Becker and his team theorized a new method to produce extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and x-ray light with elliptical polarization, a special shape in which the direction of light waves鈥 oscillation is changing. This method could provide experimentalists with a simple technique to generate such light, which is beneficial for physicists to further understand the interactions between electrons in materials on the quantum level, paving the way for designing better electronic devices such as circuit boards, solar panels, and more.
As reported in a new Science Advances paper, the JILA team and collaborators from universities in Sweden, Greece, and Germany probed the spin dynamics within a special material known as a Heusler compound: a mixture of metals that behaves like a single magnetic material. For this study, the researchers utilized a compound of cobalt, manganese, and gallium, which behaved as a conductor for electrons whose spins were aligned upwards and as an insulator for electrons whose spins were aligned downwards.
New research from JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Cindy Regal and her team, Dr. Ravid Shaniv and graduate student Chris Reetz has found that in specific scenarios, such as advanced studies looking at the interactions between light and mechanical objects, where the temperature might differ in various resonator parts, which lead to unexpected behaviors. Their observations, published in Physical Review Research, can potentially revolutionize the design of micro-mechanical resonators for quantum technology and precision sensing.
In quantum information science, many particles can act as 鈥渂its,鈥 from individual atoms to photons. At JILA, researchers utilize these bits as 鈥渜ubits,鈥 storing and processing quantum 1s or 0s through a unique system.
While many JILA Fellows focus on qubits found in nature, such as atoms and ions, JILA Associate Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor of Physics Shuo Sun is taking a different approach by using 鈥渁rtificial atoms,鈥 or semiconducting nanocrystals with unique electronic properties. By exploiting the atomic dynamics inside fabricated diamond crystals, physicists like Sun can produce a new type of qubit, known as a 鈥渟olid-state qubit,鈥 or an artificial atom.
JILA Fellow Murray Holland and his research team proposed an algorithm that uses the Quantum Fisher Information Matrix (QFIM), a set of mathematical values that can determine the usefulness of entangled states in a complicated system.
Their results, published in Physical Review Letters as an Editor鈥檚 Suggestion, could offer significant benefits in developing the next generation of quantum sensors by acting as a type of 鈥渟hortcut鈥 to find the best measurements without needing a complicated model.
Recently graduated Ph.D. researchers Bin Wang and Nathan Brooks, working with JILA Fellows Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn, developed a novel method that uses short-wavelength light with a special vortex or donut shape to scan these repeating surfaces, resulting in more varied diffraction patterns. This allowed the researchers to capture high-fidelity image reconstructions using this new approach, which they recently published in Optica.
Opening new possibilities for quantum sensors, atomic clocks and tests of fundamental physics, JILA researchers have developed new ways of 鈥渆ntangling鈥 or interlinking the properties of large numbers of particles. In the process they have devised ways to measure large groups of atoms more accurately even in disruptive, noisy environments.
The new techniques are described in a pair of papers published in聽Nature.聽JILA is a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder.
JILA graduate student Yingchao Zhang, working with JILA Fellows Henry Kapteyn and Margaret Murnane and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Rahul Nandkishore, utilized a powerful new method to precisely identify phonon interactions within quantum materials, the results of which were published in Nano Letters. Using ultraprecise, timed laser pulses, and extreme ultraviolet pulses, they measured the response times and saw precisely how the electrons and phonons interacted. This method paves the way for better control and manipulation of quantum materials.
In a new paper in The Astrophysical Journal, JILA Fellow Jason Dexter, graduate student Kirk Long, and other collaborators compared two main theoretical models for emission data for a specific quasar, 3C 273. Using these theoretical models, astrophysicists like Dexter can better understand how these quasars form and change over time.
In a recent Science paper, researchers led by JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye, along with collaborators JILA and NIST Fellow David Nesbitt, scientists from the University of Nevada, Reno, and Harvard University, observed novel ergodicity-breaking in C60, a highly symmetric molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms arranged on the vertices of a 鈥渟occer ball鈥 pattern (with 20 hexagon faces and 12 pentagon faces). Their results revealed ergodicity breaking in the rotations of C60. Remarkably, they found that this ergodicity breaking occurs without symmetry breaking and can even turn on and off as the molecule spins faster and faster. Understanding ergodicity breaking can help scientists design better-optimized materials for energy and heat transfer.