Quantum Information Science & Technology

Jun Ye Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Steven Burrows — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 04:14:02 +0000

Jun Ye Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Steven Burrows Wed, 04/22/2026 - 22:14

Steven Burrows / JILA Science Communications Manager

JILA Fellow Jun Ye has been elected a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. His election recognizes his extraordinary contributions to physics and quantum science, including pioneering advances in optical atomic clocks, precision measurement, and quantum many-body physics.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence across the sciences, humanities, arts, and public affairs, and brings leaders together to address issues of national and global importance. Academy members span centuries of achievement, from early U.S. founders such as John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to generations of influential scientists, scholars, and public leaders. Today, the Academy includes more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize recipients.

Ye, who is also a professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will be formally welcomed at the Academy’s 2026 Induction Weekend this October in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His election reflects the high regard in which he is held by peers across the physics community and underscores JILA’s enduring leadership in fundamental and applied quantum research.

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Jun Ye Elected Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Steven Burrows — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:11:48 +0000

Jun Ye Elected Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Steven Burrows Mon, 04/20/2026 - 12:11

Steven Burrows / JILA Science Communications Manager

JILA Fellow Jun Ye has been elected a corresponding member abroad of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, OeAW), recognizing his internationally influential contributions to physics and quantum science. Election to the OeAW honors scholars whose work has had a profound impact well beyond Austria and reflects exceptional standing within the global research community.

Founded in 1847, the Austrian Academy of Sciences is the country’s leading non-university research institution and a prestigious learned society spanning the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Election as a corresponding member abroad is reserved for distinguished scientists based outside Austria whose research excellence and leadership have shaped their field internationally.

Ye is widely recognized for pioneering advances in optical atomic clocks, precision measurement, and quantum many-body science. His work has set new benchmarks for timekeeping accuracy and has broad implications for fundamental physics, quantum technologies, and geodesy.

As part of the Academy’s 2026 elections, Ye has formally accepted the honor and will be welcomed at official OeAW events in Vienna later this year, including a ceremonial session for newly elected members. His election further highlights JILA’s strong tradition of international scientific leadership and collaboration.

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JILA Celebrates World Quantum Day 2026

Steven Burrows — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:22:32 +0000

JILA Celebrates World Quantum Day 2026 Steven Burrows Tue, 04/14/2026 - 13:22

Steven Burrows / JILA Science Communications Manager

On April 14, scientists and institutions worldwide mark World Quantum Day, an annual celebration of quantum science and the technologies it enables. At JILA, where quantum research is deeply embedded in the institute’s mission, the day is a moment to recognize both a long history of discovery and the work still shaping the field’s future.

World Quantum Day falls on April 14 in reference to 4.14, the rounded first digits of Planck’s constant, a foundational constant in quantum mechanics. Created as an international, community-driven effort, the day aims to raise public awareness of quantum science and why it matters. In 2026, the celebration continues the global momentum sparked by the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology in 2025, which marked 100 years since the emergence of modern quantum theory.

Quantum science touches nearly every corner of JILA. A majority of JILA Fellows work on quantum-related research, spanning theory and experiment and addressing problems at the smallest scales of nature. JILA researchers study systems such as ultracold atoms and molecules, quantum entanglement, precision measurement, and quantum simulation. This work underpins advances in clocks, sensors, lasers, and emerging quantum technologies.

JILA’s leadership in the field is grounded in decades of influential research. The institute has been home to Nobel Prize–winning breakthroughs, including the creation of the first Bose-Einstein condensate and foundational advances in laser-based precision measurement. Today, JILA researchers continue to push those boundaries, combining experimental and theoretical approaches to better control, measure, and understand complex quantum systems.

World Quantum Day also highlights JILA’s place within a broader quantum community at the University of Colorado Boulder and beyond. Through close partnerships with ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, NIST, and efforts such as the CUbit Quantum Initiative and NSF Q-SEnSE, JILA plays a central role in a collaborative ecosystem that connects fundamental science with education, workforce development, and real-world impact.

As World Quantum Day 2026 is celebrated around the globe, JILA recognizes the scientists, students, and staff whose work continues to advance quantum science. The day is both a reflection on how far the field has come and a reminder that quantum research remains a powerful driver of discovery, opening new ways to understand the universe and laying the groundwork for technologies yet to come.

JILA joins the global scientific community on April 14 to celebrate World Quantum Day 2026, recognizing the fundamental discoveries and technologies made possible by quantum science. The day highlights JILA’s long-standing leadership in quantum research and its role in shaping the future of precision measurement, sensing, and emerging quantum technologies.

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An Atomic Clock That Stays Cool and Can Rock and Roll Without Losing Time

Steven Burrows — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:07:45 +0000

An Atomic Clock That Stays Cool and Can Rock and Roll Without Losing Time Steven Burrows Thu, 04/09/2026 - 09:07

Bailey Bedford / Freelance Science Communicator

A new proposal shows how guiding atoms through a controlled loop of low-energy states using an additional atomic state and a second color of light can eliminate the heating that has long hindered superradiant atomic clocks. The design also makes the laser more robust to vibrations, as coordinated interactions among atoms help keep them synchronized even when the cavity is disturbed.

In popular culture, lasers are often portrayed as portable blasters that superheat whatever they hit. Some lasers do deliver tremendous amounts of energy in reality, but for scientists and engineers, lasers often need to do more than deliver just raw power. They need to deliver a very precise frequency—color—of light.

Precise lasers open many opportunities for experiments and technologies, notably atomic clocks, which offer the most precise timekeeping in the world. Atomic clocks are used in experiments, such as searches for dark matter, and they also make possible everyday technologies, like GPS. Currently, the most precise lasers, and therefore the most precise atomic clocks, are bulky and can be disrupted by small vibrations or changes in temperature, which limits their applications.

In an article published April 9, 2026, in the journal Physical Review Letters, JILA graduate student Jarrod Reilly proposed a new laser design that may allow for greater precision while making lasers more compact and robust. The design was developed along with JILA Fellows Murray Holland and John Cooper, as well as Simon Jäger—who was formerly a JILA postdoctoral researcher and is now an international collaborator at the University of Bonn in Germany. It builds on prior research they and their colleagues at JILA have performed, and their analysis indicated that it solves multiple problems that have limited past experiments. The improvements suggest a way that future atomic clocks can be both more precise and more convenient.

“Time and frequency are the two physical quantities that humans can measure the best,” Holland says. “This high sensitivity allows us to make measurements that are incredibly precise. Pushing it further opens up new domains where we could look farther than we've ever been able to look before.”

The new design is for a type of laser called a superradiant laser, and having a reliable superradiant laser is necessary to create a new type of compact atomic clock called an active atomic clock. Superradiant lasers that could enable active atomic clocks were first proposed by JILA researchers in 2009, and JILA researchers continue to refine the technology. Active atomic clocks use similar principles to standard atomic clocks but include some important tweaks.

Both traditional and active atomic clocks take advantage of the fact that atoms have quantum states which researchers can link together using light. Light comes in quantum packets that each carry a certain amount of energy that corresponds to its frequency—how quickly the light waves oscillate. An atom can be pushed from its initial state into a higher-energy state by hitting it with light of the right frequency. An atom with extra energy will sometimes release light to return to a lower-energy state. The consistent waves of light associated with a particular transition between chosen high- and low-energy atomic states can play a role similar to the steady swinging of a pendulum in a grandfather clock.

Traditional atomic clocks shine a laser on atoms and monitor when the atoms interact with the light at the correct frequency. An active atomic clock, instead, uses many atoms releasing light to create a laser with the desired frequency.

Making an active atomic clock requires getting all the atoms to work together to produce the superradiant laser. If too few atoms emit light at a time, nothing will be observed, and if different atoms simultaneously emit light in the wrong way, the resulting wave that is generated may lose coherence and become unusable.

To coordinate atoms, researchers put them in a special cavity where light bounces between two mirrors. The cavity maintains the frequency of light needed to interact with the atoms and encourages them to synchronize. The process resembles performers coordinating their dance steps by all listening to the same music.

In 2012, Holland collaborated with JILA Fellow James Thompson and demonstrated in experiments that superradiant lasers worked. But there was a hiccup: The process only worked for short periods at a time, and the laser ended up as a series of pulses, which couldn’t be used directly as an active atomic clock. The chamber coordinated the atoms releasing the desired frequency of light. However, when the atoms were put into the chosen energetic state, each atom emitted a small amount of extra light without any coordination. This unpredictable emission resulted in random motion that heated the atoms and eventually disrupted the synchronization needed for superradiance.

The new proposal suggests a method to eliminate the heating. Reilly, who is the first author of the paper, realized the atoms could be guided throughout the entire process and avoid the heating. Reilly observed that utilizing an additional state in the atom allows an experiment to use a different color of light to direct atoms through the troublesome step.

To make it work, he had to select an atom with two very similar states when the atom has as little energy as possible. Researchers can supply light to move the atoms between the two low-energy states. Then, placing the atoms in that additional low-energy state allows a second color of light to be introduced into a cavity that coordinates how the atoms move to the selected energetic state.

Now, the atoms are guided through more than the single dance step of producing the desired frequency. The experiment directs the atoms through a full loop of states, with a scientist controlling where all the energy goes. Each step is carefully managed, and the extra energy is predictably directed away from the atoms, where it can be easily handled.

The group used ideas from particle physics to develop a simulation of the quantum process that Reilly had identified. The simulation showed that the process should eliminate the heating that had previously prevented the creation of active atomic clocks using superradiant lasers.

“This heating rate should be so low that it would be easily manageable in a real apparatus,” Holland says.

But they went beyond eliminating the heating problem. They also discovered that the new design made the laser less sensitive to the shaking of the chamber than prior methods. The atoms didn’t just interact with the light in the cavity but with each other, like performers who can hear each other singing to the music. The new controlled transitions and extra light bouncing back and forth in the cavity should help the atoms interact and remain coordinated. If the cavity is slightly disrupted, it is like the music temporarily cutting out or being distorted, but the singing helps keep the performers coordinated nonetheless.

With increased coordination, the atoms should depend largely on synchronization with each other and less on the cavity, so shaking the cavity shouldn’t have much effect. The researchers used the simulation to show that there are certain ways to set up the experiment in which the frequency of the laser is not sensitive to vibrations of the cavity’s mirrors at all.

“What they're measuring in a clock is that frequency,” Reilly says. “The big-game-changer is that it becomes completely insensitive to vibrations, which people have spent 20 years trying to overcome. You could jump up and down next to the experiment, and in a regular clock, you'd see the color change, but you can jump up and down next to our clock and not see the color change. It should stay stable.”

The researchers also used their simulations to show that even when individual atoms fall out of sync with the others, it shouldn’t disrupt the superradiance—a known problem with some previous methods.

The team says they hope to see the proposal realized in an experiment, and they also want to combine their idea with another concept for the next generation of clocks: nuclear clocks. Nuclear clocks are similar to atomic clocks but use the quantum states of nuclei. The researchers believe their new superradiance technique could solve a lingering issue with nuclear clocks and provide a path to a new generation of unprecedentedly accurate timepieces.

Researchers at JILA propose a new superradiant laser design for next-generation “active” atomic clocks that eliminates atom-heating and vibration sensitivity, two major obstacles that have limited precision and practicality. By carefully guiding atoms through a controlled loop of quantum states, the approach could enable compact, robust atomic—and potentially nuclear—clocks that maintain extreme accuracy even under physical disturbances.

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Google Quantum AI Engages JILA Fellow Adam Kaufman to Lead New Neutral Atom Quantum Computing Effort

Steven Burrows — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 19:12:02 +0000

Google Quantum AI Engages JILA Fellow Adam Kaufman to Lead New Neutral Atom Quantum Computing Effort Steven Burrows Tue, 03/24/2026 - 13:12

Steven Burrows / JILA Science Communications Manager

Adam Kaufman (left) inspects an optical atomic clock at JILA on the University of Colorado campus with students Nelson Darkwah Oppong, Alec Cao and Theo Lukin Yelin. (Image Credit: Patrick Campbell, University of Colorado)

Today, Google Quantum AI announced a major expansion of its quantum computing research program, naming JILA Fellow Adam Kaufman to lead a newly formed neutral atom quantum hardware team. The initiative marks Google’s first large-scale investment in neutral atom quantum computing, a rapidly advancing platform that complements its long‑standing work in superconducting qubits.

Kaufman, an internationally recognized leader in neutral atom physics, will continue his research at JILA as a JILA Fellow while maintaining his academic appointment in the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. According to The Colorado Sun, Kaufman’s dual role reflects Google’s strategy of closely integrating industrial-scale engineering with cutting-edge academic research, particularly in Boulder’s growing quantum ecosystem.

In announcing the program, Google emphasized that neutral atom quantum processors offer unique advantages, including the ability to scale to very large arrays—currently on the order of thousands to tens of thousands of qubits—with highly flexible, “any‑to‑any” connectivity. While neutral atom systems operate more slowly than superconducting circuits, their scalability in qubit number makes them especially promising for quantum simulation and fault‑tolerant architectures. Google views the parallel development of both platforms as a way to accelerate progress toward commercially useful quantum computers.

This new collaboration further strengthens JILA’s national and international leadership in quantum science, building on its major federally funded research centers and broad portfolio of competitive grants. By bridging foundational research and industrial-scale quantum engineering, the partnership underscores JILA’s central role in shaping the future of quantum technology.

Please join us in congratulating Adam Kaufman on this exciting opportunity and on his continued contributions to JILA, ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, and the global quantum research community.

Learn more:

The Colorado Sun: Google taps Boulder physicist to lead new quantum computing effort
Google Quantum AI Blog: Building superconducting and neutral atom quantum computers

Google Quantum AI has named JILA Fellow Adam Kaufman to lead a new neutral atom quantum computing hardware team, marking a major expansion of its quantum research program. Kaufman will continue his research at JILA and ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, strengthening JILA’s leadership and impact in national and international quantum science.

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High-fidelity gates and creation of entangled states in Yb171 nuclear-spin qubits

Steven Burrows — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:17:50 +0000

High-fidelity gates and creation of entangled states in Yb171 nuclear-spin qubits Steven Burrows Sun, 03/22/2026 - 12:17

Our paper on preparing entangled states in Yb171 has been accepted in Nature physics! Congratulations to the team! We show high-fidelity gates in the metastable qubit, high-fidelity three-outcome measurements, and coherent mapping of entangled states between the Rydberg, nuclear, and optical qubits. This work suggests several new directions, including in quantum error correction, hybrid digital-analog quantum simulations, and quantum metrology.

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New proposal for using quantum error correction in metrology

Steven Burrows — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:16:31 +0000

New proposal for using quantum error correction in metrology Steven Burrows Sun, 03/22/2026 - 12:16

In quantum metrology, it has been considered for some time whether quantum error correction can be used to enhance precision measurements. Here, the primary challenge is devising codes ad protocols that correct noise while not correcting the unknown signal being sensed. In this collaboration with the Pichler, we identify some promising conditions for leveraging quantum error correction for enhanced sensing, even when signal and noise couple identically to sensor qubits.

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Assembling a superfluid from individual atoms

Steven Burrows — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:14:16 +0000

Assembling a superfluid from individual atoms Steven Burrows Sun, 03/22/2026 - 12:14

Since it was first proposed in 2004 by David Weiss and Maxim Olshanii, it has been a goal to see whether atomic rearrangement and high-fidelity ground-state laser cooling could employed to prepare superfluids and low-entropy many-body states of itinerant matter. In this work, we demonstrate such a protocol, opening a new path to assembling ground-state many-body state of bosonic and fermionic quantum systems.

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JILA Fellow Dana Anderson celebrates landmark milestone as Infleqtion goes public on the New York Stock Exchange

Steven Burrows — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:43:55 +0000

JILA Fellow Dana Anderson celebrates landmark milestone as Infleqtion goes public on the New York Stock Exchange Steven Burrows Mon, 02/23/2026 - 15:43

Steven Burrows / JILA Science Communications Manager

Dana Anderson, Matt Kinsella, and Infleqtion executives ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Image Credit, Infleqtion.

JILA is proud to recognize a major milestone for quantum science and technology as Infleqtion, the quantum technology company founded by JILA Fellow and ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� Professor Dana Anderson, has officially gone public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Infleqtion began trading under the ticker symbol INFQ on February 17, 2026, following completion of its business combination with Churchill Capital Corp X, marking a historic moment for both the company and the broader quantum technology community.

This public debut establishes Infleqtion as the first neutral‑atom quantum technology company to enter public markets — a significant validation of nearly two decades of foundational research that originated at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� and JILA. Founded originally as ColdQuanta and spun out of the University of Colorado Boulder in 2007, Infleqtion has since evolved into a global leader in neutral‑atom quantum computing, precision sensing, and quantum‑enabled technologies.

The company's listing is supported by over $550 million in new capital, drawn from strong shareholder participation and additional PIPE financing. This influx of funding allows Infleqtion to accelerate deployment of practical quantum solutions across aerospace, defense, energy infrastructure, advanced computation, and other mission‑critical sectors.

Infleqtion's expanding technology portfolio includes quantum computers, optical atomic clocks, RF receivers, inertial sensors, and quantum software — systems already in use by NASA, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.K. government. The company’s collaborations also extend to major industry partners such as NVIDIA, contributing to advancements in logical‑qubit‑based materials science applications. NASA’s contracted Quantum Gravity Sensor Mission, supported by more than $20 million in funding, and the U.S. Army’s $2 million program for resilient navigation and timing exemplify the real-world impact of Infleqtion’s quantum technologies.

This milestone comes during a period of notable recognition for Infleqtion’s founder. Earlier this month, Dana Anderson was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his pioneering contributions to optical quantum engineering with ultracold atoms — work that helped lay the scientific foundation for Infleqtion’s growth. Anderson’s long-standing vision for neutral‑atom architectures, cultivated through his research at JILA, continues to guide the company’s strategy as it advances quantum solutions for aerospace, national security, energy systems, and scientific computing.

Infleqtion’s public listing also highlights the strength of ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� and JILA’s innovation ecosystem. As one of the university’s most successful quantum spinouts, the company contributes to Colorado’s expanding role as a global hub for quantum research and commercialization.

As Infleqtion begins its next chapter as a publicly traded company, JILA celebrates Dana Anderson’s leadership and the transformative scientific achievements that made this moment possible.

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Breaking The Laser Stability Record Using New Crystalline Mirrors

Steven Burrows — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 15:25:03 +0000

Breaking The Laser Stability Record Using New Crystalline Mirrors Steven Burrows Wed, 02/18/2026 - 08:25

Bailey Bedford / Freelance Science Communicator

A Crystalline Coated 6cm Silicon Cavity. Image credit: Steven Burrows / JILA

In a mirror maze, finding yourself between two mirrors is designed to leave you disoriented and feeling a little unstable. In contrast, getting caught between two mirrors can be incredibly stabilizing for laser light. Scientists make lasers with incredibly stable frequencies by using optical cavities, which are mirrored chambers where light bounces back and forth hundreds of thousands of times.

Researchers at JILA have a long history of improving laser technologies and working with optical cavities. While pushing the limits of laser stability and precision, they have found a plethora of potential disturbances that they have to address to maintain stable frequencies. A tiny vibration, such as from a shaking pump in the lab, can negatively impact the operation of an optical cavity if unchecked.

A team of researchers, led by JILA and National Institute of Standards and Technology Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder Physics professor Jun Ye, has been pushing the limits of stable laser technology for more than two decades, and the team has seen signs that the natural motion of atoms that make up the mirror coatings limit their performance. Overcoming this effect and improving the stability of lasers could unlock new opportunities for experiments, like gravitational wave detectors, and improved technologies, like better atomic clocks.

So, the researchers sought an improved mirror coating. In recent experiments, Ye and his group have collaborated with a team led by Thomas Legero and Uwe Sterr at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Germany; together, the researchers have tested a new style of crystalline mirror coating expected to mitigate the negative impact of the ways atoms collectively move in the mirror’s structure. In an article published in the journal Physical Review Letters on Jan. 20, 2026, they described the experiment and the unparalleled stability the new coatings allowed them to achieve.

“So far, it had never been demonstrated that these coatings can support superior performance at the state-of-the-art level,” says Dahyeon Lee, a JILA postdoctoral researcher and first author of the article. “This work actually shows that these crystalline coatings give you four times better performance than traditional mirror coatings, while at the same time demonstrating the lowest instability of all optical cavities.”

Optical cavities are so useful in making precision lasers because light wants to naturally fall into certain frequencies when it is trapped between two reflective walls. A particular distance between two mirrors will support certain frequencies while discouraging others. But any vibration of the mirrors or any stretching or contracting of the chamber can interfere with the process and prevent the light from settling precisely into a specific frequency.

Members of Ye’s lab have long ago addressed the most obvious disruptions—like the vibrations of the cooling system that is necessary to keep the cavity working optimally. By using excellent equipment and being vigilant about tamping down vibrations, they have reached a point where things normally run so smoothly that they can see signs of their performance being impaired by the collective motion of all the atoms making up the mirror coating used in the cavity. Inside any solid object, atoms aren’t perfectly still, but depending on the structure of the material, they can all coordinate their motion in particular ways. Certain disturbances of a laser can be dealt with just by averaging the laser’s frequency for a certain amount of time, but the collective movement of the atoms in the mirrors couldn’t be dealt with so easily.

“This is a very special experiment where you can think about both engineering and physics,” says Zoey Hu, a JILA graduate student and author of the article. “What we're really doing here sounds like a simple thing—you're just keeping two mirrors as stable as possible with respect to each other. But when it comes to doing just that one simple thing, there are actually so many little details you have to think about and address.”

To address the collective atomic motion, one of the details the team has considered is how atoms behave in different materials. The new crystalline mirror coatings are made of aluminum, gallium and arsenic and have a structure that keeps the atoms locked more tightly in place than the atoms in the established coatings, which are made from silicon dioxide and tantalum pentoxide and have a more amorphous structure. The strict crystalline structure of the new coatings means the atom’s collective motion experiences less natural loss of energy and fewer random fluctuations in their motion, which should improve the stability of the frequency in experiments.

To show that the coatings were competitive with existing state-of-the-art technologies, the group had to put in some work, including installing the mirror coatings in a high-quality silicon cavity, cooling the cavity down to its frigid optimal temperature (17 K) and ensuring that the system operated smoothly. All their efforts paid off, and the system delivered a more stable frequency than the established coatings could. The coatings require some additional effort to work with, but the results show that the effort can deliver increased stability when the need arises.

“With this technology, and because we already have some other nice cavities, we can show better performance than you could get from any other laser in the world,” says Ben Lewis, a JILA postdoctoral researcher and author of the article. “The crystalline coatings are harder to work with. They're more finicky. But if you want to push and get better performance, they're one of the ways that you can.”

Lewis went on to say that the frequency is tied to the average distance the light travels between reflections and that the stability of their laser frequency averaged over a period of 10 seconds translates into knowing the length of the light’s journey to less than 1 percent of the width of a proton.

Since the coatings produced such great results, the group combined them with another technique that is known to be useful in increasing the stability of a laser frequency when another laser at the same frequency is available. They performed a process, called optical frequency averaging, where two cavities are simultaneously used and the frequency is averaged together. The other cavity used conventional coatings, but its length is more than three times longer, which is an alternative approach to increasing a cavity’s frequency stability. They demonstrated that the technique could increase the resulting frequency stability even further.

The group also shared data they collected that showed how the frequencies of four cryogenic silicon cavities have slowly changed over time. These cavities, located at either JILA or PTB, achieve the best performance currently possible for stable lasers. The frequency observed for each cavity naturally drifts after it is assembled, but over time, the drifting slows down. The data showed the changes of two cavities with the new mirror coatings and two with the established coatings. The exact role the coatings play in producing the drift remains a mystery, but the new data provides clues and indicates that the cavities with new coatings stabilized more quickly than the more established coatings.

While the group has already set a new record for laser frequency stability with the setup, the team is optimistic that the approaches used in these experiments will deliver even better results in the future. They are continuing to observe the cavity with the new coatings to see how it behaves in the long run and to use the cavity in new experiments, including applying it to keeping time.

“We know these cavities are stable and may be much better than the traditional way of doing timekeeping,” Lee says. “We're trying to reimagine how timekeeping can be done in the future by using these silicon cavities as a stable ticking machine.”

JILA researchers, working with collaborators in Germany, demonstrated that new crystalline mirror coatings dramatically reduce atomic-level noise in optical cavities, enabling lasers with record‑breaking frequency stability. By outperforming traditional coatings by a factor of four, these mirrors open the door to more precise experiments and future advances in technologies such as atomic clocks and gravitational‑wave detection.

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