The Regal Group
Stories About Our Research
Quantum Billiard Balls: Digging Deeper into Light-Assisted Atomic Collisions
When atoms collide, their exact structure—for example, the number of electrons they have or even the quantum spin of their nuclei—has a lot to say about how they bounce off each other. This is especially true for atoms cooled to near-…
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Tracking Magnetic Field Directions Using Tiny Atomic Compasses
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a novel method to measure magnetic field orientations using atoms as minuscule compasses. The research, a collaboration between JILA Fellow and CU Boulder physics…
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A Drum Sounding Both Hot and Cold
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…
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Membranes suspending a mass
Mechanical resonators featuring large tensile stress have enabled a range of experiments in quantum optomechanics and precision sensing. Many sensing applications require functionalizing tensioned resonators by appending additional mass…
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Coherence of Rabi oscillations with spin exchange
In our work recently published in Physical Review Research we study Rabi oscillations in a vapor cell environment to understand their…
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A Quantum Video Reel
When it comes to creating ever more intriguing quantum systems, a constant need is finding new ways to observe them in a wide range of physical scenarios. JILA Fellow Cindy Regal and JILA and NIST Fellow Ana Maria Rey have teamed…
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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 miniaturized version of “…
Read More
A Look at Colorado's Quantum Revolution
More than 400 years later, scientists are in the midst of an equally-important revolution. They’re diving into a previously-hidden realm—far wilder than anything van Leeuwenhoek, known as the “father of microbiology,” could have…
Read More
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 can also communicate…
Read More
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 Institute of Standards…
Read More
Where Science Meets Art: A Mural on AMO 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…
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2D membrane phononic crystals for force sensing
Analysis and new designs of low mass SiN mechanical defects in 2D acoustic shields for force sensing -- now published in …
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Upcoming workshop: Optomechanical architectures for precision sensing
We are organizing an upcoming workshop on optomechanical architectures for new physics searches through force signatures on scalable arrays of mechanical resonators. The workshop is sponsored by an …
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Optical tweezers achieve new feats of capturing atoms
Trapping single atoms is a bit like herding cats, which makes researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder expert feline wranglers. In a new study, a team led by physicist Cindy Regal showed that it could …
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Vector magnetometry
Microwaves report on the direction of a magnetic field! Our work on self-calibrated atomic vector magnetometry has been published in Phys. Rev.…
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Quiet Drumming: Reducing Noise for the Quantum Internet
Quantum computers are set to revolutionize society. With their expansive power and speed, quantum computers could reduce today’s impossibly complex problems, like artificial intelligence and weather forecasts, to mere algorithms. But as…
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The Chameleon Interferometer
The Regal group recently met the challenge of measurements in an extreme situation with a device called an interferometer. The researchers succeeded by using creative alterations to the device itself and quantum correlations. Quantum…
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APS Fellowship
Cindy Regal was elected a 2016 APS Fellow "For observation of quantum radiation pressure noise on a macroscopic object, and establishing quantum control over individual neutral atoms."
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How Cold Can a Tiny Drum Get?
Bob Peterson and his colleagues in the Lehnert-Regal lab recently set out to try something that had never been done before: use laser cooling to systematically reduce the temperature of a tiny drum made of silicon nitride as low as…
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Natural Born Entanglers
The Regal and Rey groups have come up with a novel way to generate and propagate quantum entanglement [1], a key feature required for quantum computing. Quantum computing requires that bits of information called qubits be moved from one…
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An Array of Possibilities
Graduate student Brian Lester of the Regal group has taken an important step toward building larger, more complex systems from single-atom building blocks. His accomplishment opens the door to advances in neutral-atom quantum computing…
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Adam Kaufman receives poster prize at ICAP
Graduate student Adam Kaufman received one of the poster prizes awarded at this year's International Conference on Atomic Physics in Washington DC. His poster was entitled: "Atomic Hong-Ou-Mandel effect in tunnel-coupled…
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The Little Shop of Atoms
Graduate student Adam Kaufman and his colleagues in the Regal and Rey groups have demonstrated a key first step in assembling quantum matter one atom at a time. Kaufman accomplished this feat by laser-cooling two atoms of rubidium (…
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High-Q InGaP membranes
Our work in collaboration with the Garrett Cole and the Aspelmeyer group in Vienna has been published in APL. We have demonstrated single-crystal high-stress membranes with a mechanical Q similar to SiN membranes.
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Good Vibrations: The Experiment
The Regal-Lehnert collaboration has just taken a significant step towards the goal of one day building a quantum information network. Large-scale fiber-optic networks capable of preserving fragile quantum states (which encode…
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Cindy Regal Receives 2014 Cottrell Scholars Award
Cindy Regal has been selected to receive a 2014 Cottrell Scholars Award from the Research Corporation for Science and Advancement. The Cottrell Scholar Awards are given to early career faculty members who excel at both research and…
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A phononic shield for vibrating membranes
Recent APL article by our optomechanics group in collaboration with Kat Cicak and Ray Simmonds at NIST. The little white…
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The Squeeze Machine
Research associate Tom Purdy and his colleagues in the Regal group have just built an even better miniature light-powered machine that can now strip away noise from a laser beam. Their secret: a creative workaround of a quantum limit…
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Position Wanted
Researchers in the Regal group have gotten so good at using laser light to track the exact position of a tiny drum that they have been able to observe a limit imposed by the laws of quantum mechanics. In a recent experiment, research…
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Everything's Cool with Atom
The Regal group recently completed a nifty feat that had never been done before: The researchers grabbed onto a single trapped rubidium atom (87Rb) and placed it in its quantum ground state. This experiment has identified an…
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Cindy Regal Wins David and Lucille Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering
Associate JILA Fellow Cindy Regal has been awarded a prestigious David and Lucille Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. Regal, who is also assistant professor of physics at the University of Colorado, will receive $875,000…
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Cindy Regal is CU's first Clare Boothe Luce Professor
Cindy Regal has been awarded the University of Colorado’s (CU's) first-ever Clare Boothe Luce Professorship Award. The $645,000 award is designed to “encourage women to enter, study, graduate, and teach in science, mathematics, and…
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Research Highlights
Quantum Billiard Balls: Digging Deeper into Light-Assisted Atomic Collisions
When atoms collide, their exact structure—for example, the number of electrons they have or even the quantum spin of their nuclei—has a lot to say about how they bounce off each other. This is especially true for atoms cooled to near-…
Read More
Tracking Magnetic Field Directions Using Tiny Atomic Compasses
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a novel method to measure magnetic field orientations using atoms as minuscule compasses. The research, a collaboration between JILA Fellow and CU Boulder physics…
Read More
A Drum Sounding Both Hot and Cold
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…
Read More
A Quantum Video Reel
When it comes to creating ever more intriguing quantum systems, a constant need is finding new ways to observe them in a wide range of physical scenarios. JILA Fellow Cindy Regal and JILA and NIST Fellow Ana Maria Rey have teamed…
Read More
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 miniaturized version of “…
Read More
A Look at Colorado's Quantum Revolution
More than 400 years later, scientists are in the midst of an equally-important revolution. They’re diving into a previously-hidden realm—far wilder than anything van Leeuwenhoek, known as the “father of microbiology,” could have…
Read More
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 can also communicate…
Read More
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 Institute of Standards…
Read More
Where Science Meets Art: A Mural on AMO 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…
Read More
Optical tweezers achieve new feats of capturing atoms
Trapping single atoms is a bit like herding cats, which makes researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder expert feline wranglers. In a new study, a team led by physicist Cindy Regal showed that it could …
Read More
Quiet Drumming: Reducing Noise for the Quantum Internet
Quantum computers are set to revolutionize society. With their expansive power and speed, quantum computers could reduce today’s impossibly complex problems, like artificial intelligence and weather forecasts, to mere algorithms. But as…
Read More
The Chameleon Interferometer
The Regal group recently met the challenge of measurements in an extreme situation with a device called an interferometer. The researchers succeeded by using creative alterations to the device itself and quantum correlations. Quantum…
Read More
How Cold Can a Tiny Drum Get?
Bob Peterson and his colleagues in the Lehnert-Regal lab recently set out to try something that had never been done before: use laser cooling to systematically reduce the temperature of a tiny drum made of silicon nitride as low as…
Read More
Natural Born Entanglers
The Regal and Rey groups have come up with a novel way to generate and propagate quantum entanglement [1], a key feature required for quantum computing. Quantum computing requires that bits of information called qubits be moved from one…
Read More
An Array of Possibilities
Graduate student Brian Lester of the Regal group has taken an important step toward building larger, more complex systems from single-atom building blocks. His accomplishment opens the door to advances in neutral-atom quantum computing…
Read More
The Little Shop of Atoms
Graduate student Adam Kaufman and his colleagues in the Regal and Rey groups have demonstrated a key first step in assembling quantum matter one atom at a time. Kaufman accomplished this feat by laser-cooling two atoms of rubidium (…
Read More
Good Vibrations: The Experiment
The Regal-Lehnert collaboration has just taken a significant step towards the goal of one day building a quantum information network. Large-scale fiber-optic networks capable of preserving fragile quantum states (which encode…
Read More
The Squeeze Machine
Research associate Tom Purdy and his colleagues in the Regal group have just built an even better miniature light-powered machine that can now strip away noise from a laser beam. Their secret: a creative workaround of a quantum limit…
Read More
Position Wanted
Researchers in the Regal group have gotten so good at using laser light to track the exact position of a tiny drum that they have been able to observe a limit imposed by the laws of quantum mechanics. In a recent experiment, research…
Read More
Everything's Cool with Atom
The Regal group recently completed a nifty feat that had never been done before: The researchers grabbed onto a single trapped rubidium atom (87Rb) and placed it in its quantum ground state. This experiment has identified an…
Read More
In the Spotlight
: Cindy Regal Named 2025 Brown Investigator for Pioneering Quantum Research
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Professor Cindy Regal, Baur-SPIE Chair at JILA, has been named a 2025 Brown Investigator by the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech.
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: JILA and University of Colorado Boulder Awarded $20 million to Build a new "Quantum Machine Shop"
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On June 20, 2024, the U.S. National Science Foundation awarded JILA and the University of Colorado Boulder a $20 million grant to create the National Quantum Nanofab (NQN), a cutting-edge facility poised to revolutionize quantum technology.
JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Cindy Regal remarked, "The NQN will be a unique facility for quantum discoveries and technology. I look forward to seeing the NQN as a national resource in quantum and interfacing with a wide range of JILA research.”
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: JILA Fellow Cindy Regal Named Baur/SPIE Endowed Chair in Optics and Photonics
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Regal is the first recipient for JILA's new endowed chair in optics and photonics.
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: New $115 Million Quantum Systems Accelerator to Pioneer Quantum Technologies for Discovery Science
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A new national quantum research center draws on JILA Fellows' and their expertise to make the United States an international leader in quantum technology.
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JILA Address
We are located at JILA: A joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder.
Map | JILA Phone: 303-492-7789 | Address: 440 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309
The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students. PFCs also include creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, broadening participation of traditionally underrepresented groups, and outreach to the scientific community and general public.