At the frontier of AMO physics is the possibility to create and control ultracold dipolar gases. The strong, long-range and anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction adds an entirely new feature to ultracold physics, and may be harnessed to explore collective phenomena that emerge when the dipole-dipole interaction dominates kinetic energy.
Our research program explores exotic matter through the quantum manipulation of dipolar atoms. Highly magnetic atoms, such as dysprosium, offer the ability to create strongly correlated matter in both atomic physics and quantum optics settings. In addition, these atoms will form the key ingredient in novel devices possessing unsurpassed sensitivity and resolution for the microscopy of strongly correlated materials, such as high-temperature superconductors.
The Lev group is developing the technology to perform laser cooling—and subsequent trapping in atom chips and optical lattices—of the lanthanide atom dysprosium. This will lead to three research projects: the investigation of quantum liquid crystal physics in 2D fermoinic dipolar lattices; the exploration of non-equilibrium quantum phase transitions in many-body cavity QED; and the development of atom chip microscopy at the greater than 10^-7 magnetic flux quantum level.
Research focus
Experimental ultracold atomic physics, quantum optics, and quantum information science. |
