Precision Measurement

JILA’s groundbreaking work on nuclear clocks has been highlighted in Interesting Engineering, showcasing the team’s latest advancements in ultra-precise timekeeping. Their recent study, published as an Editor's Choice paper in Physical Review Letters, explores how temperature variations affect the thorium-229 nuclear transition—an essential step toward developing a next-generation nuclear clock that could surpass the accuracy of current atomic clocks.

Many researchers at JILA and CU Boulder study phonons—tiny quantum packets of sound that play a crucial role in condensed matter physics and quantum materials. To unite this growing research community, JILA scientists established the CU Phonon Club, a collaborative space for sharing insights through regular seminars.

Among the brilliantly technical and creative minds JILA is home to, postdoctoral researcher Jake Higgins applies the best of both worlds to their work in the group of JILA and NIST Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Jun Ye. Leveraging their multi-disciplinary background, Higgins is advancing nuclear clock technology.