Welcome to

Ultracold Atoms and Quantum Gases

at the University of Washington
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We are an experimental ultracold atomic physics group in the Physics department at the University of Washington, Seattle. Through the orchestrated use of lasers, electronics, and ultra-high vacuum technology, we cool atomic gases to temperatures very near absolute zero (nanoKelvins), and then precisely manipulate them with lasers and magnetic fields for fundamental studies in quantum physics. We use ultracold bosonic and fermionic atoms to explore a wide range of quantum mechanical phenomena. Our research interests include strongly-interacting fermionic systems, few-body physics, out-of-equilibrium physics, superfluid dynamics, quantum transport, atomic interferometry, ultracold molecules, quantum simulation, quantum information, quantum metrology.

There are often openings for motivated students and post-docs to join our research efforts. Direct inquiries to Deep Gupta

 

Aug 23
Paper on Multi-path Stuckelberg interferometry is submitted and available on the arXiv.

Jun 23
Xinxin gives talk and Cole, Carson, Emmett present posters at DAMOP in Spokane, WA

Summer-REU student Siddharth Mukherjee (UCSB) joins group. Welcome!

Post-bacc students Lynnx and Aidan Kemper join group. Welcome!

May 23
Paper on a many-body Anderson metal-insulator transition using kicked quantum gases, a collaboration with Chuanwei Zhang group (UT Dallas), is submitted and available on the arXiv.

Tahiyat awarded a WA NASA Space Grant Summer Fellowship - Congrats!

Apr 23
Carson awarded an NSF GRFP Fellowship and Cole awarded an NDSEG fellowship. Congrats to both!!

Mar 23
Jun accepts a position as Optical Engineer at PacBio, in the Bay Area. All the best on your next chapter in California, Jun!

Dec 22
Jun defends his PhD thesis. Congrats Dr. See Toh!

Charles wins a UW Mary Gates fellowship. Congrats!

Sep 22
Our paper on many-body dynamical delocalization (a collaboration with Chuanwei Zhang's group at UT Dallas) is published in Nature Physics, with an accompanying News and Views. Congrats to all co-authors!

Aug 22
Emmett Hough (first year grad student) joins group. Welcome!

Tahiyat wins a Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowship. Congrats!

Jul 22
Undergrad student Olivia Peek joins group. Welcome!

Jun 22
Jun, Xinxin, and Tahiyat present talks at DAMOP-22 in Orlando, FL

May 22
Undergrad student Charles Skinner joins group. Welcome!

Nov 21
Deep elected Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Cole Williams (first year grad student) joins group. Welcome!

Paper on a proposal to detect entrainment in a Fermi-Bose mixture, a colloboration with Michael Forbes group (WSU) is on arXiv.

Oct 21
Xinxin passes general exam for doctoral candidates. Congrats!

Aug 21
Paper on Interferometry in a Yb BEC fountain is published in Special Issue of Atoms.

Carson Patterson (first year grad student) joins group. Welcome!

Jul 21
Rithi Anandwade (first year grad student) joins group. Welcome!

Jun 21
Tristan Rojo joins the group as a summer REU student. Welcome Tristan!

Paper on observation of many-body dynamical delocalization in a kicked ultracold gas, a collaboration with Chuanwei Zhang group (UT Dallas), is submitted and available on the arXiv.

May 21
Congrats to Jun and Alaina for receiving Physics Dept. awards! Jun wins the Dehmelt prize for tabletop research and Alaina wins the Henderson thesis prize.

Helen and Andrew graduate! Congratulations and all the best! Andrew will be heading to CalTech and Helen to UW for physics graduate school.

Dec 20
Dan accepts a position as Associate Scientist at SciTec, in Princeton, NJ. All the best in your next chapter, Dan!

Nov 20
Dan defends his PhD thesis. Congrats Dr. Gochnauer!

Sep 20
Helen Chen has joined the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Helen!

Aug 20
Paper on X-Beam slowing is accepted for publication in Reviews of Scientific Instruments. Congrats co-authors!

Recent PhD Katie McAlpine accepts a position as an optical metrology engineer at Optofidelity. Congrats and all the best Katie!

Jul 20
Paper on Feshbach resonances in Yb-Li is accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. X. Congrats co-authors!

Jun 20
Yifei Bai graduates! Best wishes for Physics graduate school in UCSB!

April Reisenfeld (from Carleton) joins the group as an REU student in our remote program this summer! Welcome April!

Andrew Ivanov joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Andrew!

Apr 20
Paper on Crossed-beam Slowing by Ben, Anna, et al. is submitted.

Feb 20
Paper on Magic Depth Bloch Oscillations is published in PRA and selected as an Editors' Suggestion! Also featured as an APS Synopsis piece!! Congrats to Katie and Dan!

Jan 20
Alaina moves to the east coast to start a post-doc at the University of Maryland (group of Norbert Linke). All the best, Alaina!

Alan Jamison (alum, PhD 2014) begins a faculty position at the University of Waterloo, Institute of Quantum Computing. All the best, Alan!

Pasha wins a Mary Gates scholarship to design and build optical tweezer traps. Congrats!

Dec 19
Two papers submitted - Feshbach resonances in Yb-Li by Alaina et al and Magic Depth Bloch Oscillations by Katie et al

Nov 19
Katie and Alaina defend their theses. Congrats Dr. McAlpine! Congrats Dr. Green!

Oct 19
Paper on Bloch-band Picture for Light Pulse Atom Diffraction and Interferometry is published in PRA and selected as an Editors' Suggestion.

Katie McCormick wins an IC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Congrats!

Sep 19
Aruku Senoo from U. Kyoto joins the group as a visiting undergraduate student researcher.

June 19
New grad student Anna Wirth and new post-doc Katie McCormick join the group. Welcome both!!

Paper on Photoassociation and Atom-Molecule coherence in YbLi is published in PRA

Paper on Bloch-bands Picture for Light Pulse Atom Diffraction and Interferometry is submitted

May 19
Congrats to Dan for winning the UW Physics Karrer award and to Alaina for winning the UW Physics Dehmelt award!

Mar 19
Katie and Dan are pictured in lab in GeekWire.

Paper on photoassociation and atom-molecule coherence in YbLi is submitted.

Dec 18
Dan passes the general exam for doctoral candidates. Congrats!

Sep 18
Tahiyat Rahman joins the group. Welcome!

Our Three-path atom interferometry with large momentum separation paper is published in PRL

August 18
Khang heads on to graduate school in physics at UC San Diego. Best wishes!

July 18
Katie and Alaina present posters at ICAP in Barcelona

Alaina gives a selected oral presentation at ICAP summer school

June 18
Camden Kasik from Juniata College joins the group as a summer REU student. Welcome!

May 18
Ricky is awarded the Henderson PhD dissertation award from the Physics department. Congrats!

Alaina passes the general exam for doctoral candidates. Congrats!

Alaina and Katie give talks, group presents 2 posters at Damop in Ft. Lauderdale

Dec 17
Ben successfully defends his PhD. Congrats and cheers Dr. Plotkin-Swing!

Submitted paper on Three-path atom interferometry with large momentum separation

Nov 17
Katie passes the general exam for doctoral candidates. Congrats!

Sep 17
Xinxin Tang joins the group. Welcome!

June 17
Eric Cooper from Pomona joins the interferometer project as an NSF-REU student for 10 weeks. Welcome Eric!

Alaina, Ben, and Ricky give talks, group presents a poster at Damop conference in Sacramento, CA.

May 17
Congrats to Alaina for winning the UW Physics Karrer prize!

Ricky defends his thesis, successfully! Congrats Dr. Roy! Next stop JPL.

Mar 17
BEC interferometer project reaches a milestone! Phase stability and quadratic scaling with momentum demonstrated with > 50 photon recoils

Feb 17
Our two-element Bose-Fermi superfluid paper is published in PRL and highlighted as an Editor's suggestion article!

Jan 17
Ryan Bowler accepts position as research scientist at EOSpace.

Aug 16
Jun Hui See Toh joins the group as a new graduate student. Welcome!

Jul 16
Submitted paper on Two-element mixture of Bose and Fermi superfluids

Ben and Ricky present posters, Deep gives talk at ICAP in Seoul

Jun 16
Arron Potter from Coe College joins the group as a summer REU student. Welcome Arron!

Ryan attends and gives talk at CLEO conference in San Jose, CA

Submitted paper on Photoassociative production of YbLi* molecules

Active Stabilization of diode laser injection lock is published in RSI

Brendan heads on to graduate school in physics at U Chicago. Best wishes!

May 16
Congrats to Ben for winning the UW Physics Dehmelt prize!

Ricky and Ben give talks, group presents 2 posters at Damop conference in Providence, RI

Apr 16
Rapid cooling to degeneracy paper is published in PRA

BEC acceleration to 200 recoil momenta achieved in interferometer machine

Mar 16
Khang Ton joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Khang!

Jan 16
Submitted paper on rapid cooling to degeneracy in dynamically shaped traps

Submitted paper on active stabilization of diode laser injection lock

Nov 15
Ricky and Deep attend MURI meeting at Harvard U and present poster and talk.

Sep 15
Charlie Fieseler returns as a graduate student. Welcome back Charlie!

Yb BECs achieved on our second apparatus! Congrats to Ben, Katie, Dan and Brendan!

Jul 15
Paper on dual-axis vapor cell is published in RSI.

Jul 15
Ricky gives talk, group presents poster at Damop conference in Columbus, Ohio.

Ben, Alaina, Katie, and Dan attend the Gordon conferenence in Salve Regina U in Newport, RI.

May 15
Congrats to Ricky for winning the UW Physics Dehmelt award and to Alan for winning the UW Physics Henderson (thesis) award! Deep receives a department mentoring award.

Apr 15
Paper on magnetic-field dependent interactions in Li-Yb(3P2) accepted in NJP Focus Issue on New Frontiers in Cold Molecules Research

Alaina receives honorable mention on NSF graduate fellowship competition.

Feb 15
Post-doc Ryan Bowler joins the Li-Yb team. Welcome!

Will successfully defends his thesis on Feb 25. Congrats Will!

Jan 15
Our Yb BEC interferometry apparatus is alive - Ben produces our first Yb MOT in our second apparatus.

Dec 14
Chao is awarded a Mary Gates Fellowship. Congrats!

Submitted paper on magnetic-field dependent interactions in Li-Yb(3P2)

Nov 14
Ricky and Deep attend MURI meeting at UCLA and present poster and talk.

Yb BEC contrast interferometer paper is accepted in PRA.

Sep 14
Alan starts post-doc position with Ketterle group at MIT.

Aug 14
Ben, Ricky, and Deep attend ICAP in Washington DC. Ben and Ricky present posters.

July 14
Alan successfully defends his thesis on July 18. Congrats Dr. Jamison!

Dan Gochnauer returns as a graduate student. Welcome back Dan!

June 14
Will and Alan give talks, group presents 2 posters at Damop conference in Madison, WI.

Stephen DiIorio from Union College joins the group as a summer REU student. Welcome!

May 14
Brendan and Chao are both inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma National Honor Society! Congrats guys! Way to go!

April 14
Submitted paper on Yb BEC contrast interferometer.

Alaina gets honorable mention on NSF graduate fellowship competition.

Dec 13
Paper on mixture of metastable Yb and Li is accepted in PRL.

Nov 13
Alex successfully defends his PhD thesis on Nov 26. Congrats Alex!

Brendan is awarded a UW Mary Gates Fellowship. Congrats!

Sep 13
Submitted paper on mixture of metastable Yb and Li.

Anders starts as Optical Engineer at Tomra Systems, Norway. Congrats!

Aug 13
Anders successfully defends his PhD thesis on Aug 21. Congrats Anders!

Graduate student Alaina Green joins the group. Welcome!

July 13
Graduate student Katie McAlpine joins the group. Welcome!

June 13
Dan Gochnauer from Millersville University joins the group as a summer REU student. Welcome!

May 13
Alan wins the UW Physics Dehmelt Award. Congrats!

Post-doc Raj Shrestha joins the group. Welcome!

Jan 13
Paper on Li-Yb production with controllable inter-species overlap appears in PRA.

Nov 12
Submitted paper on Li-Yb production with controllable inter-species overlap.

Oct 12
Will, Ricky, and Deep attend the ARO-MURI kickoff meeting in MIT (Cambridge, MA).

Sep 12
Brendan Saxberg joins the group. Welcome!

Aug 12
Alan, Anders, and Alex present posters at the ICAP conference in France.

Dynamics of Feshbach molecules paper accepted in PRA.

We are awarded an Army MURI Grant (in collaboration with Yale, MIT, JILA, Harvard U, Stanford U, Temple U, U of Nevada (Las Vegas))

July 12
Dynamics of Feshbach molecules paper submitted

June 12
Ricky Roy joins the group. Welcome!

Will and Alan give talks, the group presents two posters at the DAMOP conference in Anaheim, CA

May 12
Alex receives the UW Physics Miller Award. Congrats!

Ben S presents a poster at the UW undergrad research symposium

Ben S awarded a NASA-SURP fellowship for summer research. Congrats!

March 12
We are awarded a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research

News Archives

A few research highlights:

many-body rotor
Many-body Dynamical Delocalization
Novel Feshbach Resonances
Novel Yb-Li Magnetic Feshbach Resonances
Excited Magic
Magic Depth Interferometry
Double Superfluid
Two-Element Bose-Fermi Superfluid Mix

We gratefully acknowledge financial support of our research work from the following: