JILA X317

Abstract: 

The interplay of topological order and strong interactions gives rise to exciting many-body physics such as the fractional quantum Hall effect, whose microscopic properties can be unveiled using neutral atom-based quantum simulators. However, the experimental challenges due to the need to engineer an artificial magnetic field, especially in presence of interactions, have so far limited possible studies to small systems with few particles.

Abstract: Trapped ion systems are a leading platform for quantum information processing, but they are currently limited to 1D and 2D arrays, which imposes restrictions on both their scalability and their range of applications.

Abstract: Physics education research in undergraduate laboratory courses is vital to ensure that these courses achieve their learning goals, such as developing hands-on technical skills and mastering concepts and practices related to measurement uncertainty. In this talk, I cover my role in developing a research-based assessment instrument, the Survey of Physics Reasoning on Uncertainty Concepts in Experiments (SPRUCE).

Abstract: Spin glasses—large-scale networks of spins with deeply frustrated interactions—are canonical examples of complex matter. Although much about their structure remains uncertain, they inform the description of a wide array of complex phenomena, ranging from magnetic ordering in metals with impurities to aspects of evolution, protein folding, climate models, and combinatorial optimization. Indeed, spin glass theory forms a mathematical basis for neuromorphic computing and brain modeling.

The past decade has seen a huge wave of interest in the possibility of hydrodynamic transport of electrons and/or phonons in quantum materials.  There are now dozens of experiments that are approaching consensus on a weakly viscous hydrodynamic regime in e.g. monolayer graphene.

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.

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.