LevLab's research program explores uncharted regimes of strongly correlated matter by pushing the experimental state-of-the-art in atomic physics, quantum optics, and condensed matter physics. Laser-cooled and trapped gases of neutral atoms can serve as versatile testbeds for exploring the organizing principles of quantum matter. Though recent experiments can access the strongly correlated physics of gases and insulators, quantum realizations of everyday soft matter---glasses and liquid crystals that lie intermediate between canonical examples of order (crystals) and disorder (gases)---have yet to be created using ultracold atoms. My group aims to elucidate the interplay between superfluidity, crystallinity, and magnetism in quantum soft matter using novel techniques developed to: 1) realize quantum dipolar gases for exploring quantum liquid crystal physics; 2) manipulate ultracold atoms near cryogenic surfaces for high-resolution, high-sensitivity imaging of (topologically protected) transport in, e.g., unconventional superconductors; 3) realize supersmectic, superglass, and spin glass phases in a many-body, multimode cavity QED context. As a step forward, we recently created the first quantum degenerate dipolar Fermi gas as well as a strongly dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate by laser cooling and trapping the highly complex and most magnetic element, dysprosium.
Research focus
Experimental ultracold atomic physics, many-body physics, quantum optics, and quantum information science. |
