Atomic & Molecular Physics

  • Photoinduced bipolaron-to-polaron formations distorting a quasi-1D lattice of atoms play a major role in the formation of the pseudogap.
    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.
  • squeezing
    Our paper reporting squeezing below the standard quantum limit in a programmable atom array has been published in nature! Congratulations to the team! Exciting to co-publish with the Browaeys/Yao and Roos/Rey teams too!
  • A portrait of JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder professor Margaret Murnane
    Renowned scientist, JILA Fellow, and University of Colorado Boulder professor Margaret Murnane has been granted an honorary doctorate from the prestigious University of Salamanca, recognizing her outstanding contributions to the field of ultrafast laser science. As a trailblazer in her field, Murnane's groundbreaking research has revolutionized our understanding of light and opened up new avenues for scientific discovery and technological innovation. This esteemed recognition from one of the oldest universities in the world serves as a testament to Murnane's remarkable achievements and lasting impact on the scientific community.
  • Fluid-like heat flow in highly confined nanosystems
    To better understand heat transport at the nanoscale, JILA Fellows Margaret Murnane, Henry Kapteyn, and their research groups within the STROBE NSF Center, JILA, and the University of Colorado Boulder, created the first general analytical theory of nanoscale-confined heat transport, that can be used to engineer heat transport in 3D nanosystems鈥攕uch as nanowires and nanomeshes鈥攖hat are of great interest for next-generation energy-efficient devices. This discovery was published in NanoLetters.
  • JILA graduate student Alexander Aeppli stands next to the strontium atomic clock in JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye's laboratory
    JILA graduate student Alexander Aeppli is one of a team of researchers working on the world鈥檚 most precise clocks. In the laboratory of JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye, Aeppli focuses on improving the strontium atomic clock using powerful ultrastable lasers. 鈥淭he laser drives an electronic transition in strontium,鈥 Aeppli explained. 鈥淎nd we want to make sure the transition within the strontium is exact.鈥 Before the transition occurs, the strontium atoms are trapped within an optical lattice inside the clock. Once trapped, the strontium atoms can transition when exposed to a particular color (or frequency) of light, and the researchers, like Aeppli, measure this transition frequency as a form of timekeeping. The frequency can then be used as the precise standard of time worldwide.
  • Liz Shanblatt, a JILA alumn and a Staff Scientist and Collaboration Manager at Siemens Healthineers
    While many JILA alumni go onto have more traditional careers such as in quantum industry, other career paths that might not be as well-known offer some unique benefits. One of these career paths is in medical physics research. Medical physics is an important and rapidly growing field that is dedicated to the application of physics principles and techniques to medicine and healthcare. Medical physicists are experts in the use of radiation and other technologies to diagnose and treat disease, and they play a vital role in ensuring the safety and effectiveness of medical procedures. They also research and develop the next generation of tools for diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy. For JILA alumni Liz Shanblatt, a Staff Scientist and Collaboration Manager at Siemens Healthineers, medical physics became an interest only as she was nearing graduation and starting to look for jobs.
  • Dipolar BEC Gas
    Dipolar gases have become an increasingly important topic in the field of quantum physics in recent years. These gases consist of atoms or molecules that possess a non-zero electric dipole moment, which gives rise to long-range dipole-dipole interactions between particles. These interactions can lead to a variety of interesting and exotic quantum phenomena that are not observed in conventional gases.
  • Mass on membrane
    Mechanical resonators featuring large tensile stress have enabled a range of experiments in quantum optomechanics and precision sensing. Many sensing applications require functionalizing tensioned resonators by appending additional mass to them. However, this may dramatically change the resonator mode quality factor, and hence its sensitivity.

    In our work published in Physical Review Applied, we study how mode quality factor depends on suspending a mass on a type of membrane resonator known as a trampoline.聽 Surprisingly, the quality factor becomes independent of the mass in the large-load聽regime, for any tensioned resonator, which explains previous related results and will enable new design perspectives.
  • From left to right: Murray Holland, (front) Catie Ledesma, (back) Kendall Mehling, (Front) Liang-Ying (former JILA graduate student), and Dana Anderson
    JILA (a world-leading physics research institute set up by NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder) is part of a multi-university research group that will build quantum-based tools for space-based Earth sensing. NASA expects to award a $15 million grant for five years to the group of universities. This cohort includes researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, JILA, the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), the University of California Santa Barbara (USCB), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). 鈥淭he award establishes the Quantum Pathways Institute, supported by a NASA STRI (Space Technology Research Institute), led by Prof. Srinivas Bettadpur of the University of Texas at Austin, Texas, with CU and UCSB as collaborating institutions,鈥 explained Dana Anderson, a JILA Fellow and 蜜桃传媒破解版下载 professor who is involved in the project. The Quantum Pathways Institute is the first of its kind, as it strives to translate the capabilities of quantum physics into usable devices called 鈥淨uantum 2.0.鈥 Besides these developments, the Institute will offer educational training for graduate students and postdocs in quantum theory and quantum experimentation.
  • Spin exchange
    In our work recently published in Physical Review Research聽we study Rabi oscillations in a vapor cell environment to understand their coherence in a regime where strong population dynamics are present. With these efforts we take an important step towards applying ideas in聽vector magnetic field measurements using Rabi oscillations聽to vapor cells.
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