JILA-PFC

  • Visualization of locating the optimal generator on a Bloch sphere. The color represents the QFI for the given generator.
    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.
  • High-fidelity imaging of highly periodic structures enabled by vortex high harmonic beams.
    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.
  • Senator Michael Bennet (right) listens to JILA instrument maker Hans Green (middle) discuss JILA's milling machine, as JILA Fellow Chair Konrad Lehnert (left) watches.
    On October 20th, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet visited JILA, a joint institute between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder. During his visit, Bennet engaged with several of the institute's scientists and students, discussing their groundbreaking research and its implications. JILA Fellows Konrad Lehnert, Cindy Regal, Jun Ye, and Ana Maria Rey all spoke about their research during Bennett鈥檚 walking tour of JILA. Bennet visited Ye鈥檚 laboratory, discussing with several of his students the importance of atomic clocks and their impacts on technology such as GPS.

    Bennet's engagement with JILA reinforces the significance of Colorado as a hub for scientific innovation and quantum research, and it sheds light on the potential collaborations that could emerge between political leadership and the scientific community.
  • Higher accuracy atomic clocks, such as the 鈥渢weezer clock鈥 depicted here, could result from linking or 鈥渆ntangling鈥 atoms in a new way through a method known as 鈥渟pin squeezing,鈥 in which one property of an atom is measured more precisely than is usually allowed in quantum mechanics by decreasing the precision in which a complementary property is measured.
    JILA and NIST Fellow Ana Maria Rey and JILA Fellow and NIST Physicist Adam Kaufman have both been recently featured in an article for聽IEEE Spectrum.聽In a pair of聽Nature聽papers, Rey and Kaufman both demonstrated the phenomena of spin-squeezing to reduce noise in their quantum systems. "All objects that follow the rules of quantum physics can exist in multiple energy states at once, an effect known as superposition," explains the聽IEEE Spectrum聽article.聽"Spin squeezing reduces all those possible superposition states to just a few possibilities in some respects, while expanding them in others."
  • Collage of JILA Fellow William Carl Lineberger
    William Carl Lineberger, 83, loving husband, died on October 17, 2023, in Boulder, Colorado. Born in 1939, in Hamlet, North Carolina, Carl was the only child of Evelyn Pilot Cooper and Caleb Henry Lineberger. He is survived by his wife, Kitty Edwards, and his beloved dog, Jude.
  • Visualization of locating the optimal generator on a Bloch sphere. The color represents the QFI for the given generator.
    Leading the way in quantum sensing advancements, JILA, a renowned institute at the forefront of quantum sensing research, has once again proven its prowess. In a new Physics Magazine article, JILA graduate student Jarrod Reilly was highlighted in his work developing a groundbreaking approach that promises to redefine the capabilities of quantum sensors.
  • Higher accuracy atomic clocks, such as the 鈥渢weezer clock鈥 depicted here, could result from linking or 鈥渆ntangling鈥 atoms in a new way through a method known as 鈥渟pin squeezing,鈥 in which one property of an atom is measured more precisely than is usually allowed in quantum mechanics by decreasing the precision in which a complementary property is measured.
    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 Associate Fellow Shuo Sun
    JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder professor Shuo Sun recently became the science advisor for Boulder-based quantum technology company Icarus Quantum. Since its inception in 2020, Icarus Quantum has focused on developing on-demand single- and entangled-photon generators for the future quantum internet network. As Sun's research focuses on quantum information science using photons (light particles) as a means to transmit information, he will no doubt be a valuable asset to this Colorado start-up.
  • A compilation of researchers and the research/outreach led by JILA's PFC
    The JILA Physics Frontiers Center (PFC), an NSF-funded science center within JILA (a world-leading physics research institute), has recently been awarded a $25 million grant after a re-competition process.

    This science center brings together 20 researchers across JILA to collaborate to realize precise measurements and cutting-edge manipulations to harness increasingly complex quantum systems. Since its establishment in 2006, the JILA PFC鈥檚 dedication to advancing quantum research and educating the next generation of scientists has helped it to stand out as the heart of JILA鈥檚 excellence.
  • The researchers studied the C60 molecule, also known as a bucky ball, to look at breaking its ergodicity
    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.
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