Research Highlights

Displaying 81 - 100 of 441
Atomic & Molecular Physics | Laser Physics | Precision Measurement
Tweezing a New Kind of Atomic Clock
Published: February 16, 2020

Using optical tweezers, the Kaufman and Ye groups at JILA have achieved record coherence times, an important advance for optical clocks and quantum computing.

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PI(s):
Adam Kaufman | Jun Ye
Precision Measurement | Quantum Information Science & Technology
Drumming to the Heisenberg Beat
Published: January 14, 2020

Quantum drums can get around distracting noise with a new measurement technique—one that perfectly demonstrates the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

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PI(s):
Konrad Lehnert
Atomic & Molecular Physics | Quantum Information Science & Technology
The Power of the Dark Side
Published: January 06, 2020

Atoms could live in their excited states forever by reaching a dark state.

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PI(s):
Ana Maria Rey
Atomic & Molecular Physics
How universal is universality?
Published: December 09, 2019

New research from the Cornell Group suggests that the van der Waals universality may have limitations.

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PI(s):
Eric Cornell | Jun Ye
Precision Measurement | Quantum Information Science & Technology
Counting the quietest sounds in the universe
Published: November 06, 2019

How do you hear--and study--the quietest sound in the universe? With a special microphone and speaker. 

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PI(s):
Konrad Lehnert
Atomic & Molecular Physics
Bringing quanta out of the cold
Published: August 12, 2019

An advance from the Raschke group could free quantum technology from ultra-cold temperatures.

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PI(s):
Markus Raschke
Atomic & Molecular Physics | Quantum Information Science & Technology
Dancing through dynamical phase transitions in an out-of-equilibrium state
Published: August 02, 2019

Using Feshbach resonance, physicists have found that they can control a dynamical phase transition in an out-of-equilibrium state. 

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PI(s):
Ana Maria Rey
Precision Measurement
Keep it steady
Published: July 29, 2019

It's hard to read a clock with hands that wobble. The Ye Group has found a way to steady their optical atomic clock using a new cavity.

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PI(s):
Jun Ye
Astrophysics
Black Holes Continue to Tear Stars Apart
Published: July 23, 2019

While we've known for a while that black holes could rip stars apart, we don’t know why these events occur so frequently. Now, a model by JILA researchers explaining this discrepancy is shown to be promising after passing its first reality test.

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PI(s):
Ann-Marie Madigan
Biophysics | Precision Measurement
DNA imaging, ready in five minutes
Published: July 16, 2019

It's tough to get tightly-wound balls of DNA to lay down flat and straighten out to get their picture taken. A new technique from the Perkins group gets a crisp, clear picture in just five minutes.

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PI(s):
Thomas Perkins
Laser Physics
The Fastest Vortex in the West
Published: June 26, 2019

Researchers at JILA and the University of Salamanca have found a new property of light, one that creates a whirling vortex that can speed itself up. 

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PI(s):
Margaret Murnane
Quantum Information Science & Technology
Tying Quantum Knots with an Optical Clock
Published: May 22, 2019

Getting a cluster state of perfectly entangled atoms for quantum computing may be easier using a tool in JILA's laboratory.

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PI(s):
Ana Maria Rey
Quantum Information Science & Technology
Chaos reigns in a quantum ion magnet
Published: April 29, 2019

JILA researchers have proposed an experiment that would allow them to study rapid scrambling of quantum information, similar to what happens at the event horizon of a black hole. 

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PI(s):
Ana Maria Rey
Atomic & Molecular Physics
Optical tweezers achieve new feats of capturing atoms
Published: April 04, 2019

Trapping single atoms is a bit like herding cats, which makes researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder expert feline wranglers. In a new study, a team led by physicist Cindy Regal showed that it could load groups of individual atoms into large grids with an efficiency unmatched by existing methods.  

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PI(s):
Cindy Regal
Laser Physics
The Snowflake of Insulators
Published: March 01, 2019

By using ultrafast lasers to measure the temperature of electrons, JILA researchers have discovered a never-before-seen state in an otherwise standard semiconductor. This research is the most recent demonstration of a new technique, called ultrafast electron calorimetry, which uses light to manipulate well-known materials in new ways.

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PI(s):
Margaret Murnane | Henry Kapteyn
Biophysics
Pulling apart HIV
Published: February 27, 2019

JILA researchers have demonstrated a much easier, faster and more precise way to understand the structure and function of the HIV RNA molecule, especially the HIV RNA hairpin. Furthermore, the techniques developed for this research promise to allow a wider range of users to study similar biological molecules, as they are built upon commercially available and user-friendly atomic force microscopes, or AFMs.

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PI(s):
Thomas Perkins
Atomic & Molecular Physics
Buckyballs Play by Quantum Rules
Published: February 22, 2019

When the Ye group measured the total quantum state of buckyballs, we learned that this large molecule can play by full quantum rules. Specifically, this measurement resolved the rotational states of the buckyball, making it the largest and most complex molecule to be understood at this level.

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PI(s):
Jun Ye
Atomic & Molecular Physics
The Strontium Optical Tweezer
Published: January 25, 2019

JILA researchers have, for the first time, trapped a single alkaline-earth atom and cooled it to its ground state. To trap this atom, researchers used an optical tweezer, which is a laser focused to a pinpoint that can hold, move and manipulate atoms. The full motional and electronic control wielded by this tool enables microscopically precise studies of the limiting factors in many of today’s forefront physics experiments, especially quantum information science and metrology. 

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PI(s):
Adam Kaufman
Atomic & Molecular Physics
The First Quantum Degenerate Polar Molecules
Published: January 18, 2019

Understanding chemistry requires understanding both molecules and quantum physics. The former defines the start and end of chemical reactions, the latter dictates the dynamics in between. JILA researchers now have a better understanding of both.

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PI(s):
Jun Ye
Atomic & Molecular Physics
Taming Chemistry at the Quantum Level
Published: October 04, 2018

In the vast stretches between solar systems, heat does not flow and sound does not exist. Action seems to stop, but only if you don’t look long enough. Violent and chaotic actions occur in the long stretches of outer space. These chemical reactions between radicals and ions are the same reactions underlying the burn of a flame and floating the ozone above our planet. But they’re easy to miss in outer space because they’re very rare.

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PI(s):
Heather Lewandowski