Research Highlights

Displaying 461 - 469 of 469
Biophysics | Nanoscience
Sightseeing along a DNA Strand
Published: May 01, 2005

Lora Nugent-Glandorf and Tom Perkins have come up with an optical trap motion detector that can "see" protein motors moving one base at a time along a DNA helix. For some time scientists have been able to make optical traps that can track the movement of attached beads, but the method had a resolution of 1-2 nanometers, which was not sensitive enough to resolve .338 nm DNA base steps. The lack of resolution was mostly due to instrument drift.

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PI(s):
Thomas Perkins
Astrophysics
Black Holes: The Inside Story
Published: April 20, 2005

What really happens inside black holes? Andrew Hamilton and Scott Pollack, a graduate student in the Physics Department, recently decided to investigate the answer to this question. In the process, they developed a model using realistic physics that they believe better describes the internal structure of black holes.

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PI(s):
Andrew Hamilton
Astrophysics
Space: Like a River
Published: April 10, 2005

Andrew Hamilton and Jason Lisle, who received his Ph.D. in astrophysical and planetary sciences in 2004, have proposed a new model for the flow of matter into stationary and rotating black holes. In their "river model of black holes," space flows like a river through a flat background, while objects (like light rays) that move through the river abide by the rules of special relativity. 

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PI(s):
Andrew Hamilton
Laser Physics
The World's First UV Frequency Comb
Published: April 10, 2005

Jason Jones, Kevin Moll, Mike Thorpe, and Jun Ye have generated the world's first precise frequency comb in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) using a combination of an ultrafast mode-locked laser and a precision high-finesse optical cavity. The EUV frequency comb consists of regularly spaced sharp lines that extend into the EUV region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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PI(s):
Jun Ye
Laser Physics | Precision Measurement
The Power of Mirrors
Published: April 03, 2005

Three years ago Jun Ye decided to apply an old idea for amplifying and stabilizing continuous-wave (cw) lasers to state-of-the-art ultrafast lasers. In 2002, Jason Jones, a postdoctoral fellow with Jun, analyzed whether the build-up cavities used to amplify cw laser outputs could be modified to work with ultrafast, mode-locked lasers. His detailed calculations suggested that it would be possible but technically demanding.

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PI(s):
Jun Ye
Atomic & Molecular Physics
There's Strontium in the Clock
Published: April 03, 2005

A high-powered JILA collaboration led by JILA Fellows Jun Ye and Chris Greene is making important progress toward developing an ultrastable, high-accuracy optical atomic clock. The new optical clock design will use a variety of laser sources including a femtosecond comb and a diode laser stabilized with an optical cavity, which, in turn, is locked to a narrow energy level transition in ultracold strontium atoms.

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PI(s):
Chris Greene | Jun Ye
Other
Physics Class Rocks!
Published: April 03, 2005

Imagine high-school or college students so excited about physics they can hardly wait to get to class every day and learn more about how the world works. Fellow Carl Wieman recently offered cogent suggestions to new physics teachers on coming closer to this ideal. First, he recommended starting with research on how people learn physics and paying particular attention to the concept of "cognitive load." This concept, which posits that people can only process about seven ideas in short-term working memory, sets clear limits on how much information can be effectively introduced in a single lesson (or scientific talk).

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PI(s):
Carl Wieman
Laser Physics | Precision Measurement
Light Control
Published: March 31, 2005

Pete Roos, Tara Fortier, Xiaoqin Li, Ryan Smith, Jessica Pipis, and Steve Cundiff are using a phase-controlled mode-locked laser to control quantum processes in semiconductors. Semiconductors are capable of producing electrical currents from light (and vice-versa) and are the basis for a wide variety of optoelectronic devices, including photodiodes, light-emitting diodes, and solar cells.

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PI(s):
Steven Cundiff
Atomic & Molecular Physics
Laws of Attraction
Published: June 14, 2001

It’s been more than 40 years since Russian theoretical physicist Vitaly Efimov predicted a strange form of matter called the Efimov state in 1970. In these strange states, three atoms can stick together in an infinite number of new quantum states, even though any two of the atoms can’t even form a molecule.

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PI(s):
Chris Greene