Jun Ye | JILA - Exploring the Frontiers of Physics

Polar Molecules Dance to the Tunes of Microwaves

Pulse sequences for generating two-axis twisting rotate the spins of KRb molecules, transforming the spin exchange interactions.

Press Clipping: JILA and NIST Fellow and CU Boulder Professor Jun Ye and Team highlighted in "Quanta Magazine"

Using an extremely high-powered laser, scientists can excite the thorium-229 nucleus, which is the core of a future nuclear clock.

Jun Ye, a JILA and NIST Fellow and CU Boulder Professor of Physics, and his team have made headlines in Quanta Magazine for their groundbreaking work on nuclear timekeeping. Graduate student Chuankun Zhang led the team in observing a thorium-229 nuclear transition—an elusive process that could redefine how we measure time.

Read more about Press Clipping: JILA and NIST Fellow and CU Boulder Professor Jun Ye and Team highlighted in "Quanta Magazine"

Moving into a Nuclear Timekeeping Domain

JILA and NIST Fellow and CU Boulder Physics Professor Jun Ye's Research Highlighted in Recent "Physics World" Article

A photo of the strontium clock within JILA and NIST Fellow and CU Boulder Physics Professor Jun Ye's laboratory

JILA's recent advancements in the precision of strontium optical lattice clocks have garnered significant recognition, with Physics World Magazine highlighting their achievement. The research team from JILA and the University of Colorado, Boulder, has set a new record in measuring the frequency of an optical lattice clock with an unprecedented systematic uncertainty of 8.1 × 10⁻¹⁹. This level of precision is equivalent to a fraction of a second over the entire universe age, underscoring the importance of this development in the field of atomic clocks.