�Թ���

In a new study published in Science today, JILA and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Fellow and �Թ��� of Colorado Boulder physics professor Jun Ye and his research team have taken a significant step in understanding the intricate and collective light-atom interactions within atomic clocks, the most precise clocks in the universe.

In a new Optica paper, Ye’s team, working with JILA electronic staff member Ivan Ryger and John "Jan" Hall, describe implementing a new approach for the PDH method, reducing RAM to never-before-seen minimal levels while simultaneously making the system more robust and simpler.

NIST Fellow and �Թ��� of Colorado Boulder Physics professor Jun Ye, in collaboration with JILA and NIST Fellow James K. Thompson, has used a specific process known as spin squeezing to generate quantum entanglement, resulting in an enhancement in clock performance operating at the 10-17stability level. Their novel experimental setup, published in Nature Physics, also allowed the researchers to directly compare two independent spin-squeezed ensembles to understand this level of precision in time measurement, a level never before reached with a spin-squeezed optical lattice clock.

In a recent significant visit to JILA, a joint institute established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the �Թ��� of Colorado Boulder, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper discussed the transformative potential of quantum computing on Colorado's economy, job industry, and educational sector. The visit underscored the state's growing prominence in the quantum technology landscape.

In an exciting turn for physics research, four major foundations have announced a collaborative funding effort for 11 pioneering "tabletop" experiments. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Simons Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation have come together, committing a total of $30 million. This unique initiative focuses on supporting experiments that, despite their relatively modest scale, are set to delve into areas often reserved for large-scale facilities.

Among the funded projects, each of which will receive up to five years of financial support, is a particularly notable experiment led by JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye and his research team. Known for his remarkable work in physics, Ye's project stands out for its ambition and innovative approach. The experiment involves the development of ultra-precise atomic clocks, which are expected to significantly advance our understanding of both quantum mechanics and general relativity.

In a prestigious acknowledgment of scientific impact, JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye has been awarded the 2023 "Highly Cited" researcher designation from Clarivate. This notable recognition is bestowed upon researchers whose work ranks in the top 1% of citations for their field, highlighting their significant influence in the scientific community.

Every year, the Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA) holds a university meeting where students from several of Colorado's prominent universities present their work as a poster to an industry audience, followed by networking with potential employers. For students, it's an excellent opportunity to practice public speaking, share their current research projects, and find potential industry jobs. Each year, three students are awarded a cash prize for how well they communicate their research and the design of their poster.

This year, JILA graduate students Qizhong Liang, from JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye's research group, and Drew Morrill, from JILA Fellows Margaret Murnane's and Henry Kapteyn's research group, have been awarded prizes for their poster presentations.

In a recent Science paper, researchers led by JILA and NIST Fellow Jun Ye, along with collaborators JILA and NIST Fellow David Nesbitt, scientists from the �Թ��� of Nevada, Reno, and Harvard �Թ���, observed novel ergodicity-breaking in C60, a highly symmetric molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms arranged on the vertices of a “soccer ball” pattern (with 20 hexagon faces and 12 pentagon faces). Their results revealed ergodicity breaking in the rotations of C60. Remarkably, they found that this ergodicity breaking occurs without symmetry breaking and can even turn on and off as the molecule spins faster and faster. Understanding ergodicity breaking can help scientists design better-optimized materials for energy and heat transfer.

Around 150 promising inventions are generated annually within the �Թ��� of Colorado Boulder. To support these inventions, the Venture Partners at CU Boulder organization established the Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator, an accelerator program for start-up companies coming out of CU Boulder. This year, Venture Partners at CU Boulder announced the Embark Entrepreneurs in Residence cohort. This cohort pairs entrepreneurs with promising inventions.

In the case of JILA, entrepreneur Eva Yao will lead FLARI in bringing to market a breathalyzer capable of detecting molecules in breath or air samples invented by Jun Ye for fast detection of diseases and contaminants.

Some of the biggest questions about our universe may be solved by scientists using its tiniest particles. Since the 1960s, physicists have been looking at particle interactions to understand an observed imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe. Much of the work has focused on interactions that violate charge and parity (CP) symmetry. This symmetry refers to a lack of change in our universe if all particles’ charges and orientations were inverted. “This charge and parity symmetry is the symmetry that high-energy physicists say needs to be violated to result in this imbalance between matter and antimatter,” explained JILA research associate Luke Caldwell. To try to find evidence of this violation of CP symmetry, JILA and NIST Fellows Jun Ye and Eric Cornell, and their teams, including Caldwell, collaborated to measure the electron electric dipole moment (eEDM), which is often used as a proxy measure for the CP symmetry violation. The eEDM is an asymmetric distortion of the electron’s charge distribution along the axis of its spin. To try to measure this distortion, the researchers used a complex setup of lasers and a novel ion trap. Their results, published in Science as the cover story and Physical Review A, leveraged a longer experiment time to improve the precision measurement by a factor of 2.4, setting new records.