NIST physicist Adam Kaufman has been awarded the 2023 New Horizons in Physics Prize for his groundbreaking work using optical tweezers to control individual atoms. Optical tweezers use focused laser beams to trap and manipulate atoms, enabling precise control for applications in quantum information science, atomic clocks, and molecular physics.
Kaufman’s research at JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder, has demonstrated how optical tweezers can improve optical atomic clocks by trapping and preparing strontium atoms with high precision. This allows the clocks to run continuously for 30-50 seconds with long coherence times and entangled states that can accelerate the clock’s precision.
The optical tweezer technology also enables manipulation of alkaline-earth atoms for quantum information processing, a key component of quantum computing. Kaufman’s work has the potential to advance multiple areas of quantum science and technology, with more breakthroughs expected from this innovative approach.
Keywords: Quantum, Atomic, Clocks, Entanglement, Alkaline-earth
