In The News

By cleverly manipulating two properties of a neutron beam, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their collaborators have created a powerful probe of materials that have complex and twisted magnetic structures.Penetrating deep inside heavyweight materials, yet still able to interact strongly with light elements, neutron beams image hydrogen-bearing liquids in engine parts, storage tanks and fuel cells. The beams can also map the shapes of polymers on the molecular scale, reveal the precise arrangement of atoms in a crystal and chart the distribution of water within growing plants. Neutron beams became even stronger probes when scientists learned how to harness two quantum properties of the beams. One of these properties, formally known as orbital angular momentum, or OAM, refers to the twisting, or rotational motion of a neutron as it travels forward, similar to the whirlpool formed by water as it travels down a drain. The other quantum property, spin, is related to the neutron’s magnetic field, and can be likened to the spinning motion of a top.

JQI researchers have demonstrated a new way to obtain the essential details that describe an isolated quantum system, such as a gas of atoms, through direct observation. The new method gives information about the likelihood of finding atoms at specific locations in the system with unprecedented spatial resolution. With this technique, scientists can obtain details on a scale of tens of nanometers—smaller than the width of a virus. The new experiments use an optical lattice—a web of laser light that suspends thousands of individual atoms—to determine the probability that an atom might be at any given location. Because each individual atom in the lattice behaves like all the others, a measurement on the entire group of atoms reveals the likelihood of an individual atom to be in a particular point in space. Published in the journal Physical Review X, the technique (similar work was published simultaneously by a group at the University of Chicago) can yield the likelihood of the atoms’ locations at well below the wavelength of the light used to illuminate the atoms—50 times better than the limit of what optical microscopy can normally resolve. 

News from NIST Researchers at JILA have, for the first time, isolated groups of a few atoms and precisely measured their multi-particle interactions within an atomic clock. They compared the results with theoretical predictions by NIST colleagues Ana Maria Rey and Paul Julienne and concluded that multi-particle interactions occurred. "This experiment demonstrates a remarkable ability to both measure and calculate the quantum properties of just a handful of atoms held in single optical lattice cells,” says Julienne, who is also a JQI Fellow. "This type of setup is a superb platform for precision measurement and for controlling many-particle quantum dynamics and entanglement, with applications to few-body physics, many-body physics, and quantum information.” The advance will help scientists control interacting quantum matter, which is expected to boost the performance of atomic clocks, many other types of sensors, and quantum information systems. The research is published online in Nature.

NSF has announced a $15 million award to a collaboration of seven institutions, including the University of Maryland. The goal: Build the world’s first practical quantum computer. "Quantum computers will change everything about the technology we use and how we use it, and we are still taking the initial steps toward realizing this goal," said NSF Director France Córdova. "Developing the first practical quantum computer would be a major milestone. By bringing together experts who have outlined a path to a practical quantum computer and supporting its development, NSF is working to take the quantum revolution from theory to reality."Dubbed the Software-Tailored Architecture for Quantum co-design (STAQ) project, the effort seeks to demonstrate a quantum advantage over traditional computers within five years using ion trap technology. The project is the result of a National Science Foundation Ideas Lab—a week-long, free-form exchange among researchers from a wide range of fields that aims to spawn creative, collaborative proposals to address a given research challenge. The result of each Ideas Lab is interdisciplinary research that is high-risk, high-reward, cutting-edge and unlikely to be funded through traditional grant mechanisms. JQI Fellow Christopher Monroe will lead the team developing the hardware. JQI Fellow Alexey Gorshkov will be involved in the theory side of the collaboration. Text for this news item was adapted from the Duke University and NSF press releases on the award.  

JQI Fellows Edo Waks of the University of Maryland (UMD) and Ian Spielman of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are among 85 scientists and engineers nationally to receive this year's Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE Award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.