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By using optical tweezers, the Kaufman and Ye groups are exploring a new kind of optical atomic clock—one that can run measurements for more than half a minute, an unprecedented coherence time. Not only does this finding open new possibilities for precision measurement, it’s a starting point to engineer interactions between many coherent and carefully-controlled atoms.

Mechanical oscillators are crucial to developing quantum computers and quantum networks, but they have to fight against noise. Measuring the quantum movement of the oscillator not only reduces its noise, it perfectly displays the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

Strontium is an incredible element at the center of quantum physics tools and studies—most famously optical atomic clocks. While strontium atoms have one very long-lived excited state (which lives more than 100 seconds), they also have nicely accessible excited states. Those excited states are easier to access, but they are short-lived. A new proposal from the Rey Theory Group suggests a way to reach a dark state where the atoms can live in this excited state forever, opening new opportunities for clock technologies.

Understanding how three atoms interact when they are close together is really tricky. For the past decade scientists agreed that there was a universal “sweet spot”, a range called the van der Waals universality. In that range, three atoms were close enough that their interactions could be explained with simpler two-body formulas. But the Cornell Group at JILA is testing the limits of van der Waals universality, which could help form a better predictive model for other atom species.

For the first time, JILA scientists are able to observe dynamical phase transitions in an out-of-equilibrium system. They also found that they could undo the dynamical changes, reversing the experiment to where it started, which has great implications for understanding how the quantum world behaves and acts as a model for superconductors.

Using a new silicon cavity, JILA’s Ye Group has built a laser with improved coherence to reduce the noise in two optical atomic clocks and achieve record high stability. Improving atomic clocks’ stability is crucial to evaluating the clock accuracy and using these tools for scientific experiments in physics and other disciplines.

Researchers at JILA have developed a fast, simple method to prepare samples that enhances DNA imaging. The results are so clear that the double-helix shape of DNA can be seen clearly.

JILA Fellow Ana Maria Rey has been named a finalist for the prestigious Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists.

The holy grail of modern quantum science is to make a stable quantum computer. Now an experiment is on its way to create a quantum computer that is stable and can last longer using the sophisticated clock at JILA.

JILA Fellow Murray Holland was recognized for his outstanding teaching skills this spring.