News: Research Highlights

Tue January 1, 2013

Pauli Paramagnetism of an Ideal Fermi Gas

Using the two lowest hyperfine states of a non-interacting ultracold Fermi gas of 6Li as pseudospin states, we have measured the magnetic susceptibility of such a system as a demonstration of the textbook physics of Pauli paramagnetism [1]. An imbalanced spin mixture of 6Li is trapped in the harmonic confinement potential at the focus of...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights
Tue January 1, 2013

Coherence and Raman Sideband Cooling of a Single Atom in an Optical Tweezer

We investigated quantum control of a single atom in a tightly focused optical tweezer trap. We showed that inevitable spatially varying polarization gave rise to significant internal-state decoherence but that the effect could be mitigated by an appropriately chosen magnetic bias field. That enabled Raman sideband cooling of a single atom close to its three-dimensional...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights
Tue January 1, 2013

Targeted Delivery of Nanodiamonds into Living Cells

Techniques developed in AMO physics has long served as foundations for various imaging modalities in chemistry and biology. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one such example: through the mapping of proton nuclear spin resonances under the magnetic field gradient, MRI enables both structural and functional imaging of our bodies in an unprecedented detail. Magnetometry using...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights
Tue January 1, 2013

Timekeeping with Electronic Spin States in Diamond

Frequency standards based on atomic states, such as Rb or Cs vapors, or single-trapped ions, are the most precise measures of time. We proposed and analyzed a precision oscillator approach based upon spins in a solid-state system, in particular, the nitrogen-vacancy defect in single-crystal diamond. We showed that that system could have stability that approached...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights
Tue January 1, 2013

Coupling of NV Centers to Photonic Crystal Nanobeams in Diamond

The realization of efficient optical interfaces for solid-state atom-like systems is an important problem in quantum science with potential applications in quantum communications and quantum information processing. We described and demonstrated a technique for coupling single nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers to suspended diamond photonic crystal cavities with quality factors up to 6000. Specifically, we presented...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights
Tue January 1, 2013

Progress on Laser Cooling of CaF

The internal structure and the long-range dipole-dipole interactions of ultracold polar molecules open new avenues in studying physics such as the quantum simulation of strongly correlated Hamiltonians, ultracold controlled chemistry or precision measurements. At present, a reliable general method to produce an ultracold sample of molecules is desired, but not available. The goal of this...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights
Tue January 1, 2013

Nanometer-scale Thermometry in a Living Cell

Sensitive probing of temperature variations on nanometre scales is an outstanding challenge in many areas of modern science and technology. In particular, a thermometer capable of subdegree temperature resolution over a large range of temperatures as well as integration within a living system could provide a powerful new tool in many areas of biological, physical...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights
Tue January 1, 2013

All-optical Sensing of a Single-molecule Electron Spin

We demonstrated an all-optical method for magnetic sensing of individual molecules in ambient conditions at room temperature. Our approach was based on shallow nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers near the surface of a diamond crystal, which we used to detect single paramagnetic molecules covalently attached to the diamond surface. The manipulation and readout of the NV centers...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights
Tue January 1, 2013

Quantum Logic between Remote Quantum Registers

We considered two approaches to dark-spin-mediated quantum computing in hybrid solid-state spin architectures. First, we reviewed the notion of eigenmode-mediated unpolarized spin-chain state transfer and extended the analysis to various experimentally relevant imperfections: quenched disorder, dynamical decoherence, and uncompensated long-range coupling. In finite-length chains, the interplay between disorder-induced localization and decoherence yielded a natural optimal...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights
Tue January 1, 2013

Dissipative Preparation of Spin Squeezed Atomic Ensembles in a Steady State

We presented and analyzed an approach for the generation of atomic spin-squeezed states. Our method involved the collective coupling of an atomic ensemble to a decaying mode of an open optical cavity. We demonstrated the existence of a collective atomic dark state, decoupled from the radiation field. Through the explicit construction of that state we...
Read More »
News type:
Research Highlights