Laser-cooled atoms in a high-finesse optical cavity are a powerful tool for quantum simulation and quantum sensing. The optical-cavity enhances the light-matter interaction, mediating effective atom-atom interactions and probing of the quantum state below the mean-field level. In this talk, I will provide an overview of my group’s recent work in this area. We perform cavity-enhanced quantum non-demolition measurements to create highly-entangled states [1], with the first realization of a squeezed matter wave interferometer for inertial sensing [2] and a squeezing-enhanced differential strontium optical lattice clock comparison [3]. We have also realized cavity-mediated momentum-exchange interactions that give rise to a collective recoil mechanism with analogies to Mössbauer spectroscopy for suppressing Doppler dephasing [4] in matter wave interferometers, and separately demonstrated, on an optical transition. We have realized arbitrary XYZ Hamiltonian engineering in a matter wave interferometer, including realizing two-axis counter twisting for the first time since its proposal more than 30 years ago [5]. We have utilized spin-exchange interactions [6] to explore several dynamical phase transitions [7] including an emulation of long-predicted dynamical phases of a BCS superconductor [8]. If time permits, I will lastly briefly touch on the development of a superradiant laser utilizing a mHz linewidth optical transition [9] with applications for ultranarrow linewidth lasers [10] and searches for new physics.
[1] Cox et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116(9), 093602 (2016).
[2] Greve, Luo et al, Nature, 610(7932), 472-477 (2022).
[3] Robinson et al, Nature Physics 20, 208 (2024).
[4] Luo et al, Science 384, 551 (2024).
[5] Luo et al, arXiv:2402.19492 (2024).
[6] Norcia et al, Science 361, 6399, 259 (2018).
[7] Muniz et al, Nature 580, 602 (2020).
[8] Young et al, Nature 625, 679-684, (2024).
[9] Norcia et al, Science Advances, 2(10), e1601231 (2016).
[10] Norcia et al, Phys. Rev. X 8(2) 021036 (2018).
*You will need to bring your cell phone, so you can sign in using the QR code outside of ATL 2400. You will need to submit your first and last name, email, and affiliation on a form by 11:15am to be able to get lunch after the seminar. Lunch is first come, first served.*
At 4pm, there will be a tea in ATL 2117 for our speaker and students/postdocs - this is a chance to ask questions directly to our speaker. Refreshments will be served.