Research

Fast mid-circuit measurements in a cavity-coupled Ytterbium atom array

We aim to address a primary limitation of the well-established neutral atom array architecture, namely fast and local non-destructive mid-circuit measurement. We are building a Ytterbium atom array at the waist of a high finesse optical cavity. Atomic state detection schemes based on this platform improve measurement times by approximately three orders-of-magnitude compared to standard fluorescence detection, and two orders of magnitude compared to schemes limited by atom transport, with direct implications on available circuit depth. This will enable several promising applications including quantum error correction for quantum computation, enhanced optical frequency metrology, and studies of entanglement transitions in interacting spin models. These scheme can naturally extend to programmable collective measurements which, for instance, should enable extensive reduction in multi-qubit operations.

A strontium clock electrometer

in collaboration with Dr. Gretchen Campbell in the JQI.

Strontium based optical-frequency clocks are among the most precise of any physical sensor. By coupling the strontium clock state to a highly electrically polarizable state, we aim to leverage this exquisite precision for electrometry, i.e. the sensing of either DC or AC electric fields. Rydberg states, i.e. atomic configurations with one electron with a high principal quantum number, have a very loosely bound electron whose energy therefore changes rapidly with an applied electric field. By coupling this Rydberg state to the clock state off-resonantly, so-called Rydberg dressing, we cause the clock state to `inherit' some of this sensitivity. This system, furthermore, is primed to explore Rydberg-based entanglement in a large, metrologically relevant system.    

Quantum information processing with a native atom-light interface: collective atomic spin waves coupled to an optical cavity

in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Cox at ARL

The storage and computing capacity of traditional computers is typically increased by increasing the number of individual bits.  In this project, we explore an alternative way to store and compute with quantum information: using spatial patterns written in the quantum wavefunction.  We first laser cool and trap up to one million rubidium atoms in the center of an optical cavity—a racetrack for light.   Next, we create and manipulate excitations, called spin waves, in these atoms, that have information encoded in the spatial distribution of the wavefunction.  Dr. Cox and colleagues have previously shown that this apparatus may permit universal quantum computation in a device where the information is easily retrieved into a single optical fiber mode, an ideal building block for exploring quantum entanglement networks.