JILA PFC Homepage | JILA Physics Frontier Center

An artistic rendering of the two planes of the atom's movement, with the real being a 1D lattice and the synthetic referring to the nuclear spin of the atom

Clearing Quantum Traffic Jams under the SU(n) of Symmetric Collisions

Of all the atoms that quantum physicists study, alkaline atoms hold a special place due to their unique structure. Found in the second column of the periodic table, these atoms have two outer electrons, allowing the…

Long-lived entangelement of Bell state pairs compared to single unentangled atoms in a 3D optical lattice. The Bell state "stopwatch" ticks twice as fast than that of a single atom, holding the promise of higher stability and higher bandwidth for optical clocks.

Seeing Quantum Weirdness: Superposition, Entanglement, and Tunneling

Quantum science promises a range of technological breakthroughs, such as quantum computers that can help discover new pharmaceuticals or quantum sensors for navigation. These capabilities rest on two unusual…

The cover of ACS Photonics, featuring a rendering of the experiment

Creating A Two-Step Dance for Lasers

Lasers have not only fascinated scientists for decades, but they have also become an integral part of many electronic devices. To create scientific-grade lasers, physicists try to control the temporal, spatial, phase…

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…

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Latest News

JILA and NIST Fellow Adam Kaufman in his lab

September 22, 2022 | JILA and NIST Fellow Adam Kaufman Wins Breakthrough New Horizons in Physics Prize

Boulder, Colo. — Physicist Adam Kaufman of both JILA and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been awarded the 2023 New Horizons in Physics Prize from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation for his work in advancing the control of atoms and molecules to improve atomic clocks and quantum information processing.

Recent Publications

Ligand-Dependent Volumetric Characterization of Manganese Riboswitch Folding: A High-Pressure Single-Molecule Kinetic Study

Sung H.-L., and D. Nesbitt, Journal Of Physical Chemistry B (2023).

Investigators:

Ytterbium Nuclear-Spin Qubits in an Optical Tweezer Array

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

Investigators: Adam Kaufman

Structural and Elastic Properties of Empty-Pore Metalattices Extracted via Nondestructive Coherent Extreme UV Scatterometry and Electron Tomography

Knobloch J.L., B. McBennett, C.S. Bevis, S. Yazdi, T. Frazer, A. Adak, E. Nelson, J. Hernández-Charpak, H. Cheng, A. Grede, and P. Mahale, Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces TBD, (2022).

Investigators: Henry Kapteyn | Margaret Murnane

Long-lived Bell states in an array of optical clock qubits

Schine N., A. Young, W. Eckner, M.C. Martin, and A.M. Kaufman, Nature Physics (2022).

Investigators: Adam Kaufman

Lindblad master equations for quantum systems coupled to dissipative bosonic modes

Jäger S.B., T. Schmit, G. Morigi, M.J. Holland, and R. Betzholz, Physical Review Letters 129, 063601 (2022).

Investigators: Murray Holland

Synergism in the Molecular Crowding of Ligand-Induced Riboswitch Folding: Kinetic/Thermodynamic Insights from Single-Molecule Spectroscopy

Sung H.-L., and D.J. Nesbitt, The Journal Of Physical Chemistry B (2022).

Investigators: David Nesbitt

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).