News & Research Highlights

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 can also communicate with each other by using entangled photons (photons that have connected quantum states). As a result of this entanglement, quantum communication can provide a more secure form of communication, and has been seen as a promising method for the future of a more private and faster internet.

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 Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may be a leap forward for handling qubits with a light touch.  

In the study, a team of physicists demonstrated that it could read out the signals from a type of qubit called a superconducting qubit using laser light—and without destroying the qubit at the same time.

Artist's depiction of an electro-optic transducer, an ultra-thin wafer that can read out the information from a superconducting qubit.

Artist's depiction of an electro-optic transducer, an ultra-thin device that can capture and transform the signals coming from a superconducting qubit. (Credit: Steven Burrows/JILA)

The group’s results could be a major step toward building a quantum internet, the researchers say. Such a network would link up dozens or even hundreds of quantum chips, allowing engineers to solve problems that are beyond the reach of even the fastest supercomputers around today. They could also, theoretically, use a similar set of tools to send unbreakable codes over long distances. 

The study, published June 15 in the journal Nature, was led by JILA, a joint research institute between CU Boulder and NIST.

University of Colorado President Todd Saliman visited JILA this past week and toured the laboratories at the invitation of JILA and NIST Fellow Eric Cornell.

Saliman was impressed by the research team and Fellows and applauded their work.

“You are all working to change the world,” President Saliman said.

Most, if not all, JILA alumni have found that their time at JILA has impacted their careers. Whether through working on cutting-edge research or networking with others, most JILA alumni have left the institution with essential skills needed for their future successes. This is the case for Dr. Rabin Paudel, who was a Senior Applications Engineer at Cymer/ASML, which is a Dutch multinational company that makes photolithography equipment used by semiconductor chipmakers. Since the writing of this article, Paudel has now started a new position at Intel Corporation.

For some physics and math undergraduates, JILA has become a place to learn cutting-edge research while belonging to a community. That's what undergraduate Connor Thomas experienced. Though Thomas is graduating with a bachelor's in biochemistry and transitioning to a graduate program at MIT, he's been grateful for his time at JILA. "JILA has been a pretty fantastic community for me," Thomas said. "In particular, my lab has been great. They were really constant through COVID. I am definitely going to miss all of that."

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 quantum systems that are based on neutral atoms, investigating their capacities for quantum information storage and manipulation. The researchers utilize optical tweezers—arrays of highly focused laser beams which hold and move atoms—to study these systems. Optical tweezers allow researchers exquisite, single-particle experimental control. In a new paper published in Physical Review X, Kaufman and his team demonstrate that a specific isotope, ytterbium-171 (171Yb), has the capacity to store quantum information in decoherence-resistant (i.e., stable) nuclear qubits, allows for the ability to quickly manipulate the qubits, and finally, permits the production of such qubits in large, uniformly filled arrays. 

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 confounding effects may obscure the desired phenomena. For JILA and NIST Fellows Ana Maria Rey and Jun Ye, one type of phenomena they are especially interested in observing are the interactions between light and atoms, especially those at the heart of the decay of an atom prepared in the excited state. “If you have an atom in the excited state, the atom will eventually decay to the ground state while emitting a photon,” explained Rey. “This process is called spontaneous emission.” The spontaneous emission rate can be manipulated by scientists, making it longer or shorter, depending on the experimental conditions. Many years ago it was predicted that one way to suppress or slow down spontaneous emission was by applying a special type of statistics known as Fermi statistics which prevents two identical fermions from being in the same quantum state, known as the Pauli Exclusion Principle

This principle is similar to a game of Duck, Duck, Goose, where two individuals fight over an open spot in a circle in order to avoid being “it.” Like children in this game, the atoms must find an empty quantum state to decay into. If they cannot find an empty state, interesting things begin to happen. “If an excited atom wants to decay, but the ground state is already filled, then the decay is “Pauli blocked” and the atom will stay in the excited state longer, or even forever,” Rey said. Nevertheless, the experimental observation of this effect happened to be challenging.  It was not until last year  that the Ye group observed Pauli blocking of radiation for the first time indirectly by measuring the light scattered by the atoms—but a direct observation of Pauli blocking by measuring  the lifetime of atoms in the steady state was lacking. More recently, Ye’s and Rey’s groups collaborated in a joint study, and were able to find an appropriate experimental setting where they were able to observe Pauli blocking of spontaneous emission by direct measurements of the excited state population. The results have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters. 

JILA W. M. Keck Lab has been selected to receive a CU Green Labs Program Award for the lab’s efforts for shared research resources. The annual CU Green Labs Awards Program started in 2015 to reward departments that work to make the campus' sustainability possible.  Awardees exemplify CU’s continuing efforts to become a sustainable institution. 

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 from the interaction between matter and the  modes of the electromagnetic field—the background “hiss” of the universe that is all around us. However, spontaneous emission of light can limit the utility of atomic excited states for a wide array of scientific and technological applications, from probing the nature of the universe to inertial navigation. Understanding ways to alter or even engineer spontaneous emission has been an intriguing topic in science.  JILA Fellows Ana Maria Rey and James Thompson study ways to control light emission by placing atoms in an optical cavity, a resonator made of two mirrors between which light can bounce back and forth many times. Together, with JILA postdoc and first author Asier Piñeiro Orioli, they have predicted that when an array of multi-level atoms is placed in the cavity the atoms can all cooperate and collectively suppress their emission of light into the cavity. These findings were recently published in Physical Review X.

Worldwide, many researchers are interested in controlling atomic and molecular interactions. This includes JILA and NIST fellows Jun Ye and Ana Maria Rey, both of whom have spent years researching interacting potassium-rubidium (KRb) molecules, which were originally created in a collaboration between Ye and the late Deborah Jin. In the newest collaboration between the experimental (Ye) and theory (Rey) groups, the researchers have developed a new way to control two-dimensional gaseous layers of molecules, publishing their exciting new results in the journal Science.

The hunt was afoot within the laboratory of JILA and NIST Fellow Ralph Jimenez as his team continued to unravel the mystery of entangled two-photon absorption. Entangled photons are pairs of light particles whose quantum states are not independent of each other, so they share aspects of their properties, such as their energies and angular momenta. For many years, these photons have been studied by physicists who are trying to create quantum networks and other technologies. The Jimenez lab has been researching whether entangled photons can excite molecules with greater, even super, efficiency as compared with normal photons. 

In a new paper published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Jimenez and his team report a new experimental setup to search for the cause of a mysterious fluorescent signal that appears to be from entangled photon excitation. According to Jimenez: “We built a setup where you could use either a classical laser or entangled photons to look for fluorescence. And the reason we built it is to ask: ‘What is it that other people were seeing when they were claiming to see entangled photon-excited fluorescence?’ We saw no signal in our previous work published a year ago, headed by Kristen Parzuchowski. So now, we're wondering, people are seeing something, what could it possibly be? That was the detective work here.” The results of their new experiments suggested that hot-band absorption (HBA) by the subject molecules, could be the potential culprit for this mysterious fluorescent signal, making it the prime suspect. 

JILA Fellow Heather Lewandowski has been honored in the 2022  President’s Teaching Scholars Program (PTSP), which recognizes CU faculty who skillfully integrate teaching and research at an exceptional level. Lewandowski's laboratory focuses on both cold molecular physics and physics education research. Her physics education research program studies ways to increase students' proficiency in scientific practices such as using models and quantitative reasoning in experimental physics. 

Physicists develop some of the most cutting-edge technologies, including new types of lasers, microscopes, and telescopes. Using lasers, physicists can learn more about quantum interactions in materials and molecules by taking snapshots of the fastest processes, and many other things. While lasers have been used for decades, their applications in technology continue to evolve. One such application is to generate and control x-ray laser light sources, which produce much shorter wavelengths than visible light. This is important because progress in developing x-ray lasers with practical applications had essentially stalled for over 50 years. Fortunately, researchers are beginning to change this by using new approaches. In a paper published in Science Advances, a JILA team, including JILA Fellows Margaret Murnane, and Henry Kapteyn, manipulated laser beam shapes to better control properties of x-ray light.

JILA physicists have measured Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, or more specifically, the effect called time dilation, at the smallest scale ever, showing that two tiny atomic clocks, separated by just a millimeter or the width of a sharp pencil tip, tick at different rates.

The experiments, described in the Feb. 17 issue of Nature, suggest how to make atomic clocks 50 times more precise than today’s best designs and offer a route to perhaps revealing how relativity and gravity interact with quantum mechanics, a major quandary in physics.
 

JILA Fellow Cindy Regal has helped consult on a new mural placed in Washington Park in Denver, Colorado. The mural, titled Leading Light, loosely alludes to AMO physics, which Regal studies by using laser beams. With bright yellows and vivid pinks, the mural depicts four women interacting with different blue spheres, representing electrons. One woman wears sunglasses, modeled on thelaser goggles that JILAns wear for lab safety. The artist, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, found Regal's work captivating. “We share a vision to not only uplift women in STEM and to bring science and our society closer together, but also to foster dynamic and organic relationships with science in everyone, whether or not they choose to become scientists,” the artist said.

Two JILA graduate students were awarded "Oustanding Service Awards" from the Physics department at the University of Colorado Boulder. These awards are given each semester. 

Antonio Vigil, a recently graduated JILA undergraduate has been named an "Outstanding Undergraduate" by the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Vigil recently graduated summa cum laude after working for three years at JILA. 

How atoms interact with light reflects some of the most basic principles in physics. On a quantum level, how atoms and light interact has been a topic of interest in the worldwide scientific community for many years. Light scattering is a process where incoming light excites an atom to a higher-lying energy state from which it subsequently decays back to its ground state by reemitting a quantum of light. In the quantum realm, there are many factors that affect light scattering. In a new paper published in Science, JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye and his laboratory members report on how light scattering is affected by the quantum nature of the atoms, more specifically, thequantum statistical rule such as the Pauli Exclusion Principle.

JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye has been awarded the 2022 Herbert-Walther-Award from the German Physical Society and OPTICA (formerly OSA). This award recognizes distinguished contributions in quantum optics and atomic physics as well as leadership in the international scientific community.

Gravimetry, or the measurement of the strength of a gravitational field (or gravitational acceleration), has been of great interest to physicists since the 1600s. One of the most precise ways to measure gravitational acceleration is to use an atom interferometer. There are many different types of atom interferometers but so far all operate using uncorrelated atoms that are not entangled. To build the best one allowed in nature, it requires harnessing the power of quantum entanglement. However, making a quantum interferometer with entangled atoms is challenging. JILA Fellows Ana Maria Rey and James K. Thompson have published a paper in Physical Review Letters that discusses a new protocol that could make entangled quantum interferometers easier to produce and use.