JILA X317

Tabletop Coherent Extreme Ultraviolet Metrology and Imaging of Nanostructures

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Abstract: Nanoscale fabrication has progressed to the level where detailed near nanometer structure can be routinely produced. As fabrication scales shrink to atomistic scales, a corresponding need for high precision characterization is in demand. The use of extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) for patterning of small-scale features has seen considerable development and application in recent years.

Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Ultrafast Excitations in Magnetic Alloys

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The next generation of logic devices may rely on very fast switching of magnetic states. In this thesis, I utilize ultrafast pulsed lasers to measure and manipulate magnetic states on their fundamental timescales: ranging from few-femtoseconds spin-transfers in Heusler alloys to magnetization reorientations in ferrimagnets which take tens of picoseconds. I utilize high harmonic generation to produce a tabletop extreme ultraviolet probe for resonant measurements.

Twisting, Binding, and Probing Matter Waves in a Rubidium Cavity-QED system

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Large ensembles of laser-cooled atoms interacting via photon-mediated interactions are powerful platforms for quantum simulation and sensing. In this work, I will present a cavity-QED system with matter waves coupled to a high-finesse cavity. In this system, we successfully generated entanglement between atomic momentum states and realized the first entangled matter-wave interferometer.

Quantum simulation of a lattice gauge theory: thermalization, many-body scars, and collision dynamics

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Abstract: Gauge theories form the foundation of modern physics, with applications ranging from early-universe cosmology and heavy-ion collisions to condensed matter systems. However, simulating the real-time dynamics of such quantum many-body systems on classical computers is fraught with difficulties, motivating the pursuit of alternative venues. I will present recent experiments where we employ a large-scale Bose-Hubbard quantum simulator to emulate a U(1) lattice gauge theory, which couples charged matter fields through dynamical gauge fields.