News & Research Highlights

Anjun Chu, a JILA graduate student, has been awarded the esteemed Boeing Quantum Creators Prize for 2023. This prestigious award, established by Boeing in 2021, celebrates early-career researchers who have significantly contributed to the advancement of quantum information science and engineering.

Chu, a member of the theory group led by JILA and NIST Fellow Ana Maria Rey, has distinguished himself through his groundbreaking research in quantum many-body dynamics. His work, focusing on spin systems and their multilevel extensions, has been vital in exploring quantum simulation and metrology in cutting-edge areas like optical lattice clocks and cavity QED systems.

In a new study published in Scientific Reports, JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Andreas Becker and his team theorized a new method to produce extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and x-ray light with elliptical polarization, a special shape in which the direction of light waves’ oscillation is changing. This method could provide experimentalists with a simple technique to generate such light, which is beneficial for physicists to further understand the interactions between electrons in materials on the quantum level, paving the way for designing better electronic devices such as circuit boards, solar panels, and more.

Deep within every piece of magnetic material, electrons dance to the invisible tune of quantum mechanics. Their spins, akin to tiny atomic tops, dictate the magnetic behavior of the material they inhabit. This microscopic ballet is the cornerstone of magnetic phenomena, and it's these spins that a team of JILA researchers—headed by JILA Fellows and University of Colorado Boulder physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn—has learned to control with remarkable precision, potentially redefining the future of electronics and data storage. 

As reported in a new Science Advances paper, the JILA team and collaborators from universities in Sweden, Greece, and Germany probed the spin dynamics within a special material known as a Heusler compound: a mixture of metals that behaves like a single magnetic material. For this study, the researchers utilized a compound of cobalt, manganese, and gallium, which behaved as a conductor for electrons whose spins were aligned upwards and as an insulator for electrons whose spins were aligned downwards.

Using a form of light called extreme ultraviolet high-harmonic generation (EUV HHG) as a probe, the researchers could track the re-orientations of the spins inside the compound after exciting it with a femtosecond laser, which caused the sample to change its magnetic properties. The key to accurately interpreting the spin re-orientations was the ability to tune the color of the EUV HHG probe light.
“In the past, people haven't done this color tuning of HHG,” explained co-first author and JILA graduate student Sinéad Ryan. “Usually, scientists only measured the signal at a few different colors, maybe one or two per magnetic element at most.” In a historic first, the JILA team tuned their EUV HHG light probe across the magnetic resonances of each element within the compound to track the spin changes with a precision down to femtoseconds (a quadrillionth of a second).

“On top of that, we also changed the laser excitation fluence, so we were changing how much power we used to manipulate the spins,” Ryan elaborated, highlighting that that step was also an experimental first for this type of research. By changing the power, the researchers could influence the spin changes within the compound.

When measuring minor changes for quantities like forces, magnetic fields, masses of small particles, or even gravitational waves, physicists use micro-mechanical resonators, which act like tuning forks, resonating at specific frequencies. Traditionally, it was assumed that the temperature across these devices is uniform. 

However, new research from JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Cindy Regal and her team, Dr. Ravid Shaniv and graduate student Chris Reetz has found that in specific scenarios, such as advanced studies looking at the interactions between light and mechanical objects, where the temperature might differ in various resonator parts, which lead to unexpected behaviors. Their observations, published in Physical Review Research, can potentially revolutionize the design of micro-mechanical resonators for quantum technology and precision sensing.

Every year, the Czech Science Foundation (GCAR) funds several JUNIOR STAR projects focused on new research areas and building powerful collaborative teams. These projects are awarded to early-career scientists coming to the Czech Republic from other countries or with significant international experience. Each project is awarded CZK 25 million over the following five years.
This year, JILA postdoctoral researcher Vít Svoboda is one of the 17 awardees in the 2023 JUNIOR STAR cohort. 

Quantum sensors help physicists understand the world better by measuring time passage, gravity fluctuations, and other effects at the tiniest scales. For example,  one quantum sensor, the LIGO gravitational wave detector, uses quantum entanglement (or the interdependence of quantum states between particles) within a laser beam to detect distance changes in gravitational waves up to one thousand times smaller than the width of a proton! 

LIGO isn’t the only quantum sensor harnessing the power of quantum entanglement. This is because entangled particles are generally more sensitive to specific parameters, giving more accurate measurements. 

While researchers can generate entanglement between particles, the entanglement may only be useful sometimes for sensing something of interest. To measure the “usefulness” of quantum entanglement for quantum sensing, physicists calculate a mathematical value, known as the Quantum Fisher Information (QFI), for their system. However, physicists have found that the more quantum states in the system, the harder it becomes to determine which QFI to calculate for each state. 

To overcome this challenge, JILA Fellow Murray Holland and his research team proposed an algorithm that uses the Quantum Fisher Information Matrix (QFIM), a set of mathematical values that can determine the usefulness of entangled states in a complicated system. 

Their results, published in Physical Review Letters as an Editor’s Suggestion, could offer significant benefits in developing the next generation of quantum sensors by acting as a type of “shortcut” to find the best measurements without needing a complicated model.

In quantum information science, many particles can act as “bits,” from individual atoms to photons. At JILA, researchers utilize these bits as “qubits,” storing and processing quantum 1s or 0s through a unique system. 

While many JILA Fellows focus on qubits found in nature, such as atoms and ions, JILA Associate Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor of Physics Shuo Sun is taking a different approach by using “artificial atoms,” or semiconducting nanocrystals with unique electronic properties. By exploiting the atomic dynamics inside fabricated diamond crystals, physicists like Sun can produce a new type of qubit, known as a “solid-state qubit,” or an artificial atom.

U.S. President Joe Biden has awarded 232 Senior Executive Service (SES), Senior-Level (SL), and Scientific and Professional (ST) members across 31 government agencies with the prestigious Presidential Rank Award. Of these individuals, JILA and NIST Fellow Ana Maria Rey has been recognized within the Department of Commerce for her work in precision measurement and quantum physics. 

To study nanoscale patterns in tiny electronic or photonic components, a new method based on lensless imaging allows for near-perfect high-resolution microscopy. This is especially important at wavelengths shorter than ultraviolet, which can image with higher spatial resolution than visible light but where image-forming optics are imperfect. 

The most powerful form of lensless imaging is called ptychography, which works by scanning a laser-like beam across a sample, collecting the scattered light, and then using a computer algorithm to reconstruct an image of the sample. 

While ptychography can visualize many nanostructures, this special microscope has trouble analyzing samples with very regular, repeating patterns. This is because the scattered light does not change as a periodic sample is scanned, so the computer algorithm gets confused and cannot reconstruct a good image.

Taking on this challenge, recently graduated Ph.D. researchers Bin Wang and Nathan Brooks, working with JILA Fellows Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn, developed a novel method that uses short-wavelength light with a special vortex or donut shape to scan these repeating surfaces, resulting in more varied diffraction patterns. This allowed the researchers to capture high-fidelity image reconstructions using this new approach, which they recently published in Optica. This result will also be highlighted in the Optica Magazine Optics and Photonics News in the annual highlights of Optics in 2023. 

Every year, the Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA) holds a university meeting where students from several of Colorado's prominent universities present their work as a poster to an industry audience, followed by networking with potential employers. For students, it's an excellent opportunity to practice public speaking, share their current research projects, and find potential industry jobs. Each year, three students are awarded a cash prize for how well they communicate their research and the design of their poster. 

This year, JILA graduate students Qizhong Liang, from JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye's research group, and Drew Morrill, from JILA Fellows Margaret Murnane's and Henry Kapteyn's research group, have been awarded prizes for their poster presentations. 

On October 20th, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet visited JILA, a joint institute between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder. During his visit, Bennet engaged with several of the institute's scientists and students, discussing their groundbreaking research and its implications. JILA Fellows Konrad Lehnert, Cindy Regal, Jun Ye, and Ana Maria Rey all spoke about their research during Bennett’s walking tour of JILA. Bennet visited Ye’s laboratory, discussing with several of his students the importance of atomic clocks and their impacts on technology such as GPS. 

 Bennet's engagement with JILA reinforces the significance of Colorado as a hub for scientific innovation and quantum research, and it sheds light on the potential collaborations that could emerge between political leadership and the scientific community.

JILA and NIST Fellow Ana Maria Rey and JILA Fellow and NIST Physicist Adam Kaufman have both been recently featured in an article for IEEE Spectrum. In a pair of Nature papers, Rey and Kaufman both demonstrated the phenomena of spin-squeezing to reduce noise in their quantum systems. "All objects that follow the rules of quantum physics can exist in multiple energy states at once, an effect known as superposition," explains the IEEE Spectrum article. "Spin squeezing reduces all those possible superposition states to just a few possibilities in some respects, while expanding them in others." 

William Carl Lineberger, 83, loving husband, died on October 17, 2023, in Boulder, Colorado. Born in 1939, in Hamlet, North Carolina, Carl was the only child of Evelyn Pilot Cooper and Caleb Henry Lineberger. He is survived by his wife, Kitty Edwards, and his beloved dog, Jude.

Leading the way in quantum sensing advancements, JILA, a renowned institute at the forefront of quantum sensing research, has once again proven its prowess. In a new Physics Magazine article, JILA graduate student Jarrod Reilly was highlighted in his work developing a groundbreaking approach that promises to redefine the capabilities of quantum sensors.

Opening new possibilities for quantum sensors, atomic clocks and tests of fundamental physics, JILA researchers have developed new ways of “entangling” or interlinking the properties of large numbers of particles. In the process they have devised ways to measure large groups of atoms more accurately even in disruptive, noisy environments. 

The new techniques are described in a pair of papers published in Nature. JILA is a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder. 

JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder professor Shuo Sun recently became the science advisor for Boulder-based quantum technology company Icarus Quantum. Since its inception in 2020, Icarus Quantum has focused on developing on-demand single- and entangled-photon generators for the future quantum internet network. As Sun's research focuses on quantum information science using photons (light particles) as a means to transmit information, he will no doubt be a valuable asset to this Colorado start-up. 

The JILA Physics Frontiers Center (PFC), an NSF-funded science center within JILA (a world-leading physics research institute), has recently been awarded a $25 million grant after a re-competition process. 

This science center brings together 20 researchers across JILA to collaborate to realize precise measurements and cutting-edge manipulations to harness increasingly complex quantum systems. Since its establishment in 2006, the JILA PFC’s dedication to advancing quantum research and educating the next generation of scientists has helped it to stand out as the heart of JILA’s excellence. 

JILA and NIST Fellows Jun Ye and Eric Cornell's recent research on advancing electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) measurements has been highlighted in Physics World. 

In a recent Science paper, researchers led by JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye, along with collaborators JILA and NIST Fellow David Nesbitt, scientists from the University of Nevada, Reno, and Harvard University, observed novel ergodicity-breaking in C60, a highly symmetric molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms arranged on the vertices of a “soccer ball” pattern (with 20 hexagon faces and 12 pentagon faces). Their results revealed ergodicity breaking in the rotations of C60. Remarkably, they found that this ergodicity breaking occurs without symmetry breaking and can even turn on and off as the molecule spins faster and faster. Understanding ergodicity breaking can help scientists design better-optimized materials for energy and heat transfer. 

Many everyday systems exhibit “ergodicity” such as heat spreading across a frying pan and smoke filling a room. In other words, matter or energy spreads evenly over time to all system parts as energy conservation allows. On the other hand, understanding how systems can violate (or “break”) ergodicity, such as magnets or superconductors, helps scientists understand and engineer other exotic states of matter.

Around 150 promising inventions are generated annually within the University of Colorado Boulder. To support these inventions, the Venture Partners at CU Boulder organization established the Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator, an accelerator program for start-up companies coming out of CU Boulder. This year, Venture Partners at CU Boulder announced the Embark Entrepreneurs in Residence cohort. This cohort pairs entrepreneurs with promising inventions. 

In the case of JILA, entrepreneur Eva Yao will lead FLARI in bringing to market a breathalyzer capable of detecting molecules in breath or air samples invented by Jun Ye for fast detection of diseases and contaminants.