The group of Prof. Vuletic, at MIT, demonstrated that reversing the time in an atomic sensor can lead to a strongly enhanced sensitivity. With this time-reversal protocol, sensors can be operated with highly-entangled states which carry large statistical information close to the fundamental Heisenberg Limit.  Due to their fragility, these “superior” quantum states are extremely...

Optical lattice clocks (OLC) are widely recognized as the next golden standard for timekeeping. Over the past decades, researchers around the world have made the second the best characterized among all seven of International System of Units (SI units), reaching an unprecedented fractional stability at few parts-of-ten-Quintillion (1019). Despite the tremendous effort of improving technology...

A group at the MIT led by Prof. Vladan Vuletić has recently generated significant amount of spin squeezing-a type of quantum entanglement-in an ultracold vapor of ytterbium-171. Spin squeezed states (SSS) can be used to overcome the standard quantum limit (SQL) which bounds state-of-the-art atomic sensors like optical clocks. The latter deploy a dilute vapor...

A group at MIT led by Vladan Vuletic has recently created a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) of rubidium atoms with a new method, direct laser cooling. Many researchers have attempted this elusive goal in the past, but due to various complications resorted to reaching BEC through evaporation instead. Compared to cooling through evaporation, laser cooling is...