JILA, an institute jointly operated by the University of Colorado and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), is one of the nations leading research institutes in the physical sciences. The funds provided to JILA through the Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program support a collection of 19 senior investigators working at JILA in the broad area of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics and closely related topics. The PFC-supported activities encompass four major themes that are identified as focus components: ultracold atom science, cold molecules, novel spectroscopies, and education and outreach. In each of the four components, the proposed program builds upon past successes while at the same time allowing the participation of five new young investigators. The research components have strong overlap and are intimately connected in their technology base as well as their scientific goals. Moreover, each of the AMO research components includes both a number of related experimental projects and associated theoretical activities. The unity of the efforts in JILA is reflected in the fact that most of the JILA investigators lead projects in more than one of the components.
JILAs success has and will continue to be driven by the powerful combination of state-of-the-art technology development coupled with fundamental scientific advances. Work in ultracold atoms science will build on JILAs expertise in both Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum degenerate Fermi gases. Future efforts will continue to explore and take full advantage of tools such as magnetic-field Feshbach resonances and optical lattices that allow for exquisite control over these systems. In work on cold molecules, JILA will continue to lead efforts to develop and apply novel tools for the manipulation and quantum control of molecules on varying scales of size and complexity. Broad goals include selectively encouraging one outcome of a chemical reaction over another, producing molecules in desired (perhaps exotic) states, tracking the flow of energy among molecular constituents, and assessing the influence of solvent molecules by adding them one at a time. Work on novel spectroscopy will advance JILAs technical capabilities with objectives that include the development of novel femtosecond spectroscopies and high-resolution photoelectron instruments. In addition, JILA will apply its AMO expertise to a few scientific challenges that go beyond the study and control of atoms and simple molecules. This work includes the application of laser technology and spectroscopic techniques to the study of more complex and biologically important molecular systems, and in addition an investigation of quantum coherence in nanoscale devices. JILAs education and outreach efforts will include human resource development and outreach activities, as well as a new physics education research effort that will utilize the expertise of the JILA investigators and seeks to develop better ways to convey AMO science to all students. Partial funding for the education research efforts is provided by the Division of Research, Evaluation and Communication.
The JILA program conducted through this support will have many different broader impacts. It will enhance the technical infrastructure by developing many new laser-based tools and techniques, and by producing many graduates who are highly trained not only in AMO physics but also in technical communication and teaching skills. It will also attract more students into science, particularly from under-represented groups, through a vigorous undergraduate research program and a summer research program for faculty and students from predominantly minority-serving institutions. It will contribute to general science interest and literacy through a variety of programs that include presenting the very popular science Wizards show for school children, developing exhibits on light and color for a new science museum, and having suitably trained graduate students present science topics to Colorado 8-10th grade science classes. It will also research, develop, and broadly disseminate better ways to teach AMO science to all students, particularly through on-line interactive simulations.
The JILA Physics Frontier Center is a collection of about twenty senior scientists, plus students and post docs, working collaboratively to advance the frontiers of research in the area of Atomic, Molecular and Optical (AMO) physics and related fields. More than the simple sum of our parts, our inter-related research interests and mutually supporting technologies have enabled major breakthroughs in the 2006-2011 time period, breakthroughs that will benefit science and the society that has invested in science. For nearly two decades, much of the most significant progress in AMO physics was enabled by breakthroughs in producing ultracold atomic gases. During the 2006-2011 grant period, took several of these techniques of ultracold and extended them from atoms to molecules. We created a gas of ultra-cold molecules, molecules with strong electric dipoles. Using this gas, we did the first ever experiments in chemistry at temperatures below one microkelvin, and showed that in this exotic regime, modest applied electric fields could turn a chemical reaction on and off. With the results only two or three years old, it is too soon to fully understand the implications of these results, but past experience suggests lower temperatures and more precise, quantum-level control will always lead to deeper understanding, and often to valuable new applications. Molecules being so much more widely diverse than atoms, and so much closer to real-world applications, we are optimistic about this nascent (and, even in two years, explosively growing) new field. Many other groups around the world were attempting to do what we did. Success came to JILA because of close collaborations between multiple research groups at our Center, some with expertise in ultracold, some in lasers, some in the theory of molecular structure and dynamics. The world’s most accurate and precise clock is a Strontium-based optical clock developed here in JILA with PFC support during the grant period. It represents the coalescing of many strands of JILA research – experimental prowess in ultracold atoms, frequency combs based on ultrafast lasers, and theoretical expertise in quantum many-body physics. Improved clocks are integral to improved navigation (ala the GPS system), secure communication, and will help decipher what radio astronomy is discovering about the early universe. In another breakthrough in precision, PFC scientists have cooled a small drumhead-like mechanical oscillator until its only remaining energy is its fundamental quantum mechanical hum. The drumhead, when coated with a reflective surface, will serve as a sort of quantum telegraph key for sending quantum information down optical fibers. The Center invested heavily in our ultrafast laser research, and these investments paid handsome dividends when we were able to use x-ray pulses less than one femtosecond long to initiate and stroboscopically freeze the motion of molecules. JILA scientists were very involved in our outreach program, going to local middle schools that particularly serve underrepresented populations to run science enrichment programs.
