Past Events

Zaap! Electricity and Magnetism!

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Join us on Saturday, November 15, 2025, for an electrifying experience as CU Physics Professor Daniel Bolton uncovers the wonders of electric charges and magnets up close! Ever wondered how electrical attraction and repulsion function or what transpires inside an electric circuit? Curious about the inner workings of a power plant in generating electricity? 

Reaction Mechanisms of Combustion Intermediates

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Abstract: Modeling gas-phase chemical kinetics relevant to combustion and atmospheric chemistry requires a complete description of elementary reactions involving ephemeral species such as hydroperoxyalkyl radicals, Q̇OOH, which undergo competing sets of unimolecular reactions and bimolecular reactions with O2. The balance of flux from the competition affects rates of chain-branching and inherently depends on temperature, pressure, and oxygen concentration.

Science Communication for Researchers

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In this workshop, you will learn how to tailor your research for different audiences. It will provide you with skills to present your work for job interviews in academia and industry. You will also learn how to apply these communication skills to the public and have the opportunity to practice with feedback from trained experts in science communication. All JILAns are welcome to attend.

The workshop is two hours total and will be offered twice: 
Option 1: Wednesday November 12, 10am-12pm in JILA X325
Option 2: Thursday November 13, 2-4pm in JILA X317

Ultrafast nano-imaging resolving carrier and lattice dynamics on the nanoscale

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Abstract: Ultrafast infrared spectroscopy in its extension to nano-imaging provides access to vibrational and low energy carrier dynamics in molecular, semiconductor, quantum, or polaritonic materials. In addition, to simultaneously probe both ground and excited state dynamics we have developed ultrafast heterodyne pump-probe nano-imaging with far-from-equilibrium excitation.

Heat Transport and Nanophotonics at Extreme Small (Atomic) Scales

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Abstract: Understanding thermal transport and light-matter interactions at the extreme scales is both fundamentally important and practically relevant. Studying these regimes often demand new instrumentation and high-resolution sensing techniques. In this talk, I will present my lab’s efforts to explore the complex landscape of heat transport and nanophotonics at the atomic and single-molecule scale. Specifically, we have developed microfabricated scanning thermal microscopes with picowatt- and sub-picowatt sensitivity and atomic spatial resolution.

Light-emitting molecular semiconductors for LEDs, solar cells and spin-optical interfaces

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RASEI is hosting Prof. Richard Friend, from the University of Cambridge, UK, will be presenting on Wednesday November 12, 2025 as part of the Nozik Lecture Series from 3:00 – 4:00 PM, with a poster reception with refreshments following the talk. The talk will be on the fourth floor of the CASE building on main campus.

Science Communication for Researchers

When
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In this workshop, you will learn how to tailor your research for different audiences. It will provide you with skills to present your work for job interviews in academia and industry. You will also learn how to apply these communication skills to the public and have the opportunity to practice with feedback from trained experts in science communication. All JILAns are welcome to attend. 

The workshop is two hours total and will be offered twice: 
Option 1: Wednesday November 12, 10am-12pm in JILA X325
Option 2: Thursday November 13, 2-4pm in JILA X317

No Fireworks: Black Hole Radiation Builds Gradually

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Abstract: This talk will explore how quantum radiation - known as Hawking radiation – emerges when a black hole forms in the gravitational collapse of a star. While it has long been known that black holes emit energy, its precise origin has been debated. Over the decades, some researchers proposed that this energy is released directly from the collapsing star, producing a sudden burst that may potentially disrupt the collapse.

Quantum Computing Enhanced Sensing

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Quantum computing and sensing represent two distinct frontiers of quantum information science. Here, we harness quantum computing to solve a fundamental and practically important sensing problem: the detection of weak oscillating fields with unknown strength and frequency. We present a quantum computing enhanced sensing protocol, that we dub quantum search sensing, outperforming all existing approaches. Furthermore, we prove our approach is optimal by establishing the Grover-Heisenberg limit -- a fundamental lower bound on the minimum sensing time.

A Hidden Quantum Interference in a Weyl Semimetal System

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Quantum interferences, where two electronic pathways “compete” in a manner akin to the interference of separate propagating waves, are often exploited in atomic systems to realize a variety of exotic phenomena, such as electromagnetically induced transparency, slow light and lasing without inversion. In crystalline materials, quantum interferences can sometimes be difficult to discern with conventional probes, even if their consequences may be just as profound.

Rocket launches and satellite re-entry: Estimating how the coming age of LEO megaconstellations may impact the atmosphere

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The number of rockets and satellites launched into space has rapidly increased since the late 2010’s as a response to the expanding interest in both the commercial and government opportunties available in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The year 2021 saw the number of rockets launched into space break the record set in 1967 during the height of the space race, while a GAO report on satellite megaconstellations released in 2023 estimated that the number of satellites present in LEO will balloon from present day numbers of roughly 6,000 to over 60,000 individual units by 2040.

The nonlinear Electrodynamics of Weyl Semimetals

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Abstract: At the heart of the Weyl semimetal are massless, chiral quasiparticles that derive from electronic band-crossings split by either spatial inversion or time-reversal symmetry breaking. The resulting nodal points in the bulk band structure serve as sources and sinks of “topological charge” that are responsible for the phenomenology usually associated with these materials, including open Fermi arc surface states and the chiral anomaly.

What can the Standard Model actually predict?

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Abstract: The most basic requirement of a scientific theory is that it make predictions. Is the Standard Model a scientific theory? As the well-tested, reigning theory of the elementary particles and fundamental forces, the Standard Model certainly claims to be able to predict the outcomes of a wide range of experiments. Yet from inelastic nuclear scattering, to neutron stars and superconductors, the universe is filled with systems whose behavior should be predicted by the Standard Model, but for which no such predictions are forthcoming!

Ultra-high Vacuum (UHV) best practices

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Edwards Vacuum will be providing a training on Ultra-high Vacuum (UHV) best practices, including best known methods on pump configuration, bake-out, etc.  The goal is to help align UHV best practices department wide to reduce experiment set-up time and re-work. This could also apply to those that do not use UHV today, but may like to take advantage of broadening their UHV knowledge for the future.

Laboratory Measurements of Asteroid Fragmentation

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Abstract: The scales of asteroid strength, from centimeters to tens of meters or more, can in principle be connected via the well-known Weibull theory (Weibull 1951) that explains in probabilistic terms why small samples of a rock are stronger than the whole. There are fewer weak flaws to be exploited in a smaller sample. This leads to a statistical understanding of size-dependent strength that has been implemented in fragmentation and damage models for planetary materials (Melosh et al., 1992; Benz and Asphaug 1994, 1995). The Weibull analysis enabled Cotto-Figueroa et al.