JILA PFC Homepage | JILA Physics Frontier Center

Graphical illustration of light focusing using a planar glass surface studded with millions of nanopillars (referred to as a metalens) forming an optical tweezer. (A) Device cross section depicts plane waves of light that come to a focus through secondary wavelets generated by nanopillars of varying size. (B) The same metalens is used to trap and image single rubidium atoms.

JILA and NIST Researchers Develop Miniature Lens for Trapping Atoms

JILA Fellow Cindy Regal and her team, along with researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have for the first time demonstrated that they can trap single atoms using a novel…

The transducer developed by the Lehnert and Regal research groups uses side-banded cooling to convert microwave photons to optical photons

Connecting Microwave and Optical Frequencies through the Ground State of a Micromechanical Object

The process of developing a quantum computer has seen significant progress in the past 20 years. Quantum computers are designed to solve complex problems using the intricacies of quantum mechanics. These computers…

An illustration of the efficient and continuously operating electro-optomechanical transducer whose mechanical mode has been optically sideband-cooled to its quantum ground state. This is the tool that will be used to convert microwave photons into optical photons to eventually send quantum signals over long distances.

New Research Reveals A More Robust Qubit System, even with a Stronger Laser Light

Qubits are a basic building block for quantum computers, but they’re also notoriously fragile—tricky to observe without erasing their information in the process. Now, new research from CU Boulder and the National…

A rendering of a ytterbium qubit held within a set of optical tweezers

Tweezing a New Kind of Qubit

JILA has a long history in quantum research, advancing the state of the art in the field as its Fellows study various quantum effects. One of these Fellowsis Adam Kaufman. Kaufman and his laboratory team work on…

Selected atoms (green) within doubly occupied sites of a 2D "Fermi Sea" are excited by a polarized laser pulse. Pauli blocking prevents decay of the excited atoms (red) as they can only decay into unoccupied sites (black).

An Atomic Game of Duck, Duck, Goose

Physics has always been a science of rules. In many situations, these rules lead to clear and simple theoretical predictions which, nevertheless, are hard to observe in actual experimental settings where other…

Comparison of 2-level and 6-level atom decay paths. For 6-level systems, each state can potentially decay into several states and some of them might be dark due to destructive interference.

Running in a Quantum Corn Maze and Getting Stuck in the Dark

Light is emitted when an atom decays from an excited state to a lower energy ground state, with the emitted photon carrying away the energy. The spontaneous emission of light is a fundamental process that originates…

Major Activities

Latest News

July 13, 2022 | Jun Ye is awarded the Department of Defense 2022 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship

The DoD announced today the selection of nine distinguished faculty scientists and engineers for the 2022 Class of Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows (VBFF). This highly competitive Fellowship is named in honor of Dr. Vannevar Bush, who directed the Office of Scientific Research and Development after World War II. In line with Dr. Bush’s vision, the Fellowship aims to advance transformative, university-based fundamental research.

“The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship is the Department’s most prestigious research grant award,” said Dr. Jean-Luc Cambier, the VBFF Program Director. “It is oriented towards bold and ambitious ‘blue sky’ research that will lead to extraordinary outcomes that may revolutionize entire disciplines, create entirely new fields, or disrupt accepted theories and perspectives.” JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye has been distinguished as one of the 2022 Fellows.

Recent Publications

Ytterbium Nuclear-Spin Qubits in an Optical Tweezer Array

A. Jenkins, Lis, J., Senoo, A., McGrew, W. F., and Kaufman, A. M., Phys. Rev. X 12, 021027 (2022).

Investigators: Adam Kaufman

Single-Atom Trapping in a Metasurface-Lens Optical Tweezer

T. -W. Hsu, Zhu, W., Thiele, T., Brown, M. O., Papp, S. B., Agrawal, A., and Regal, C. A., Prx Quantum 3, 030316 (2022).

Investigators: Cindy Regal

Resolving the Inner Parsec of the Blazar J1924–2914 with the Event Horizon Telescope

S. Issaoun, Wielgus, M., Dexter, J., and al, et., The Astrophysical Journal 934, 145 (2022).

Investigators: Jason Dexter

Temporal and spectral multiplexing for EUV multibeam ptychography with a high harmonic light source

N. Brooks, Wang, B., Binnie, I., Tanksalvala, M., Esashi, Y., Knobloch, J. L., Nguyen, Q. L., McBennett, B., Jenkins, N. W., Gui, G., University, Z. Z. T., Kapteyn, H., Murnane, M., and Bevis, C. S., Optics Express 30, 30331 (2022).

Investigators: Henry Kapteyn | Margaret Murnane

Measuring correlations from the collective spin fluctuations of a large ensemble of lattice-trapped dipolar spin-3 atoms

Y. Alaoui, Zhu, B., Muleady, S. R., Dubosclard, W., Roscilde, T., Rey, A. M., Laburthe-Tolra, B., and Vernac, L., Physical Review Letters 129, 023401 (2022).

Investigators: Ana Maria Rey

Kinetic Simulations of Instabilities and Particle Acceleration in Cylindrical Magnetized Relativistic Jets

J. Ortuño-Macías, Nalewajko, K., Uzdensky, D. A., Begelman, M. C., Werner, G., Chen, A. Y., and Mishra, B., The Astrophysical Journal 931, 137+ (2022).

Investigators: Mitch Begelman

About JILA PFC

The JILA Physics Frontier Center (JILA PFC) brings together 20 investigators in collaboration to share goals, ideas, expertise and technology in their aim to realize precise measurement, innovative manipulation, and harvesting ever-more intriguing meaning, all in the world of complex quantum systems.

A theme that runs through all of JILA PFC research is the importance of interactions in understanding and exploiting the nature of quantum many-particle systems. The JILA PFC seeks to foment a new quantum revolution, in which matter with built-in quantum correlation will be understood, controlled, and harnessed. In this process, we will gain new insights into the emergence of universal rules that govern complex materials. At the same time, the JILA PFC envisions inventing novel quantum-measurement approaches for exploring unknown corners of our physical world.

The JILA PFC is housed within the JILA institute, which is a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder).