JILA-PFC
JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder聽Distinguished Professor Andreas Becker has been awarded a 2023 fellowship to Optica (formerly the聽Optical Society of America). Becker's work at JILA focuses on the analysis and simulation of ultrafast phenomena in atoms, molecules, and clusters, in particular attosecond electron dynamics, coherent control, and molecular imaging. Using special laser frequencies, Becker and his team are able to study the dynamics of these atoms and molecules in different time scales.
JILA Fellow Margaret Murnane has been selected as a recipient of the 2022 Institute of Physics Isaac Newton Medal and Prize. This prestigious award honors the legacy of the famous physicist Sir Isaac Newton, by commending those who have made world-leading contributions in the field of physics.聽Murnane received the award for pioneering and sustained contributions to the development of ultrafast lasers and coherent X-ray sources and the use of such聽sources to understand the quantum nature of materials.
JILA and NIST Fellow James K. Thompson鈥檚 team of researchers have for the first time successfully combined two of the 鈥渟pookiest鈥 features of quantum mechanics to make a better quantum sensor: entanglement between atoms and delocalization of atoms.
How does a scientist become interested in quantum physics? For Ana Maria Rey, both a JILA and NIST Fellow, the answer involves a rich and complicated journey. Quantum Systems Accelerator,聽a National QIS Research Center funded by the United States Department of Energy Office of Science, featured Rey in a new article series in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. In this article, Rey shares her story and her current research.
Atomic clocks are essential in building a precise time standard for the world, which is a big focus for researchers at JILA. JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye, in particular, has studied atomic clocks for two decades, looking into ways to increase their sensitivity and accuracy. In a new paper published in Science Advances, Ye and his team collaborated with JILA and NIST Fellow Ana Maria Rey and her team to engineer a new design of clock, which demonstrated better theoretical understanding and experimental control of atomic interactions, leading to a breakthrough in the precision achievable in state-of-the-art optical atomic clocks.
Adam Kaufman 鈥 a JILA Fellow, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Physicist, and University of Colorado Boulder Professor 鈥 has been awarded the American Physical Society's (APS) 2023 I.I. Rabi Prize in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) physics.
Boulder, Colo. 鈥 Physicist Adam Kaufman of both JILA and the U.S. Department of Commerce鈥檚 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been awarded the聽2023 New Horizons in Physics Prize聽from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation for his work in advancing the control of atoms and molecules to improve atomic clocks and quantum information processing.
In a new paper published in PRX Quantum, Rey and her team of researchers proposed a new method for seeing the quantum effects enabled by SU(n) symmetry in current experimental conditions, something that has been historically challenging for physicists.
Many researchers at JILA study and use superposition and entanglement of quantum systems, including JILA fellow Adam Kaufman. Previously, Kaufman and his research team focused on improving the coherence time of the strontium atoms鈥 superposition between the ground state and the 鈥渃lock鈥 state, so named because these two states form the basis for state-of-the-art atomic clocks. As reported in two new papers, researchers from this lab have extended these studies to much larger system sizes, with an atom in a superposition of hundreds of locations, and separately, demonstrating optical clock entanglement with seconds-scale coherence time.
A collaboration led by Dr. Liao and other researchers, including JILA Fellows Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn, worked out a method to image and better analyze ST-OAM beams.