Research News

Lasers helped UMD researchers hone their aim in a microscopic game of darts played to recover gold nanoparticles from levitation experiments.

Researchers have demonstrated that a strange type of quantum particle called the anyon, believed to exist in only two dimensions, can also be created in one dimension. Further studies exploring different types of one-dimensional anyons could bring scientists one step closer to using the particles as a fundamental unit of memory in a quantum computer.

Floquet engineering, in which the properties of the system are qualitatively modified by strong periodic driving, provides a route to realizing new kinds of quantum systems. However, a Floquet-engineered Hamiltonian is always accompanied by unwanted heating.

In a new paper, scientists seeking better methods for controlling the quantum interactions between light and matter demonstrated a novel way to use light to give electrons a spinning kick. They reported the results of their experiment, which shows that a light beam can reliably transfer orbital angular momentum to itinerant electrons in graphene, on Nov. 26, 2024, in the journal Nature Photonics.

The established knowledge and technical infrastructure from decades of quantum research are allowing researchers to harness quantum technologies in unexpected, innovative ways and creating new research opportunities. In a paper published in the journal Nature Physics, a collaboration between theorists at JQI and experimentalists at Harvard University presented a technique that repurposes the technology of superconducting circuits to study samples with exotic forms of superconductivity. The collaboration demonstrated that by building samples of interest into a superconducting circuit they could spy on exotic superconducting behaviors that have eluded existing measurement techniques.

We have written a review article describing advances in chip-integrated laser technologies in the visible and short near-infrared wavelength regimes.

Quantum computers are the basis of a growing industry. However, their technology isn’t standardized yet, and researchers are still studying the physics behind the ways to build these quantum devices. Even the most basic building blocks of a quantum computer—qubits—are still an active research topic. In an article published September 23, 2024 in the journal Physical Review A, JQI researchers proposed a way to use the physics of superconducting junctions to let each function as more than one qubit.

In a new paper, we demonstrate interactions between vapor-phase Rb atoms and an integrated photonic microresonator down to the few-atom, few-photon level.

In radio frequency technologies, the Chu Limit presents a significant challenge for small antennas, particularly at low frequencies where their performance is constrained.

Atomic quantum sensors (e.g. clocks, magnetometers, electrometers, inertial sensors, etc.) are being used to solve real-world problems including global positioning, imaging of biological systems, and geodesy, with new applications continually emerging. The breadth of the atomic sensor design space is daunting, since one may utilize any combination of atomic states, lasers, rf fields, time-dependence, atomic nonlinearities, lasercooling and trapping, and Rydberg states.