News: Research Highlights

Wed November 20, 2024

Hilbert-Space Ergodicity in Driven Quantum Systems: Obstructions and Designs

Many-body quantum systems reach thermal equilibrium due to a property called quantum ergodicity. Despite its conceptual significance, there is no general definition of quantum ergodicity that is universally applicable to all scenarios. In quantum systems whose description remains unchanged with time, quantum ergodicity is defined through the system’s stationary configurations — certain states that do not...
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Research Highlights
Mon November 18, 2024

Emergent ferromagnetic states revealed in a geometrically frustrated triangular lattice

In a material, the way electrons align their spins to form a magnetic phase strongly depends on the geometry of the crystal they inhabit. In particular, triangular lattice geometries display an effect called geometrical frustration, where up and down spins cannot all be antialigned classically. This effect is thought to give rise to complex and...
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News type:
Research Highlights
Mon November 18, 2024

CUA scientists observe microemulsion phases in the quantum melting of an electron Wigner crystal

Electrons, as quantum particles, display wave-like behavior. Forming a crystalline phase of electrons requires not only cooling but also strong Coulomb (repulsive) forces to counteract their wave-like nature. When this balance is achieved, electrons can arrange into a Wigner crystal. By adjusting electron density, a phase transition between a crystalline and liquid state can occur....
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Research Highlights
Mon November 18, 2024

A Conveyor Belt MOT of Diatomic Molecules

Ultracold molecules provide a powerful and versatile platform for quantum computing,simulation, and metrology applications. The cornerstone technique for generating these cold, dense samples of molecular gasses is the magneto-optical trap (MOT). Conventional molecular MOTs use red-detuned light, limiting them to relatively high temperatures and low densities, leading to small spatial overlap and low loading efficiency...
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News type:
Research Highlights
Thu November 14, 2024

Cavity-enabled real-time observation of individual atomic collisions

Arrays of individual neutral atoms represent a promising platform for quantum information processing due to their scalability, arbitrary connectivity, and long coherence times. These features are enabled in large part by the simple trapping and high-fidelity fluorescence imaging of individual atoms within tweezer traps. In our lab, we use strong dispersive coupling to a high-cooperativity...
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News type:
Research Highlights
Fri May 3, 2024

Physicists arrange atoms in extremely close proximity

Proximity is key for many quantum phenomena, as interactions between atoms are stronger when the particles are close. In many quantum simulators, scientists arrange atoms as close together as possible to explore exotic states of matter and build new quantum materials. They typically do this by cooling the atoms to a stand-still, then using laser...
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News type:
Research Highlights
Fri February 9, 2024

Technique could improve the sensitivity of quantum sensing devices

In quantum sensing, atomic-scale quantum systems are used to measure electromagnetic fields, as well as properties like rotation, acceleration, and distance, far more precisely than classical sensors can. The technology could enable devices that image the brain with unprecedented detail, for example, or air traffic control systems with precise positioning accuracy.    
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Research Highlights
Fri December 22, 2023

High-fidelity parallel entangling gates in atom arrays

Recently, neutral-atom arrays have emerged as a promising platform for quantum computing. Atom arrays are highly flexible and reconfigurable, allowing coherent control over hundreds of qubits and connectivity between any qubits in the array. The main outstanding challenge of using atom arrays has been to reduce errors in entangling operations, which rely on highly-excited atomic...
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News type:
Research Highlights
Fri December 15, 2023

Scalable Quantum Memory Control in Photonic Circuits

In a study published in “Nano Letters,” MIT and MITRE researchers describe an important advance in controlling spin quantum memories in photonic circuits. Their paper, “Selective and Scalable Control of Spin Quantum Memories in a Photonic Circuit,” offers a new approach for individual-qubit control even when the system is “under-actuated” — i.e., the number of...
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News type:
Research Highlights
Tue December 12, 2023

Programmable Quantum Simulators Meet Quantum Chemistry

In an interdisciplinary collaborative effort, a team of CUA members in the Yelin, Lukin, and Yao groups joined forces with computational quantum chemists in Martin Head-Gordon’s group (UC Berkeley) to develop a novel approach to simulate quantum properties of molecules and materials on state-of-the-art atomic quantum processors. Quantum chemistry is seen as a promising potential...
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News type:
Research Highlights