Assembles optical-tweezer-trapped arrays of ultracold atoms and polar molecules (including NaRb) for quantum information science, quantum simulation, and cluster-state quantum computing, with associated Rydberg-based sensing capabilities.
Jean Dalibard's BEC group at LKB studies quantum gases, BEC, and strongly correlated quantum systems. Research: (1) 2D Bose gases and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition; (2) gauge fields for neutral atoms β synthetic magnetism; (3) quantum simulation with ultracold atoms. Dalibard is a foundational figure in cold-atom physics; his group at LKB/CollΓ¨ge de France is relevant through quantum gas experiments tied to quantum simulation and precision measurement. Borderline case included given BEC foundations for sensing.
Experimental AMO physicist focused on precision measurement for fundamental physics. Primary directions: (1) ACME experiment measuring electron electric dipole moment to unprecedented precision using ThO molecular beam β tests for new CP-violating physics beyond the Standard Model; (2) ultracold polar molecule quantum simulation and quantum information in optical tweezers. Atomic coherence techniques underpin SERF/OPM magnetometry. Joined UChicago from Yale 2022.
Douillet works on precision spectroscopy of cold trapped molecular hydrogen ions, developing laser-cooling and rotational-state-selection techniques to improve the accuracy of tests of molecular QED alongside Laurent Hilico.
Doyle's group laser-cools and traps polyatomic and diatomic molecules (including CaF and YbOH) using cryogenic buffer-gas sources, applying them to precision tests of fundamental physics such as the electron electric dipole moment (ACME-style eEDM measurement) and to molecule-based quantum information. This precision-measurement approach to fundamental-symmetry tests is a borderline but included case under the quantum-sensing umbrella, given its shared cold-molecule-platform lineage with atomic/vapor sensing and inertial-sensing work.
Duellmann heads nuclear chemistry at JGU (TRIGA reactor site) with joint appointments at GSI and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz, working on the production, chemical separation and characterization of the heaviest elements. For this search the relevant thread is 229Th: his group supplies and prepares the isomeric thorium samples and molecular thorium ions that Wendt's laser spectroscopy and Schmidt-Kaler's ion traps interrogate en route to a nuclear clock, and he is part of the broader radioactive-molecule programme aimed at symmetry-violation searches. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), the pivot is toward the next frontier of frequency metrology, where the 'sensor' is a nucleus rather than an electron shell -- an unusually good chemistry/physics interface for a postdoc.
Igor Ferrier-Barbut (CNRS DR, LCF/IOGS) works on dipolar and Rydberg quantum systems for quantum simulation. Research: (1) dipolar dysprosium (Dy) quantum gases β magnetic dipole-dipole interactions, supersolids, quantum droplets; (2) sub-wavelength structured atomic arrays as quantum simulation platforms; (3) collective light-matter interactions in dense cold-atom ensembles. Jacques Herbrand Grand Prize 2022. ERC Starting Grant (CORSAIR). Works in the Browaeys/Lahaye quantum optics group.
Flambaum is one of the most cited atomic theorists alive and the intellectual source of a large fraction of the modern precision-AMO new-physics programme. His group computes the atomic and molecular structure factors that convert an experimental frequency shift into a bound on new physics: enhancement factors for electron and nuclear EDMs, atomic parity violation, the sensitivity of clock transitions to variation of the fine-structure constant, and β most relevant to quantum sensing β the response of atomic clocks, magnetometers and comagnetometers to ultralight/axion-like dark matter fields. He proposed much of the theory behind using networks of quantum sensors as dark matter detectors. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work β DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity β his theory is what tells an experimentalist what a pT/sqrt(Hz) magnetometer or a 10^-18 clock actually constrains: without it, a spin-precession measurement is just a number. Theory group; a sensing postdoc would collaborate rather than join.
Foot leads the Ultracold Quantum Matter group and is one of the two Oxford physics PIs co-leading the AION project at Oxford. His group develops laser-cooled strontium atom sources with the ultranarrow Sr-87 clock transition for large-scale single-photon atom interferometry. Near-term goals include the AION-10, a 10-m baseline vertical atom interferometer currently under construction in the Beecroft Building stairwell, targeting dark matter searches and mid-band gravitational wave detection. Foot's group also studies non-equilibrium 2D quantum gas physics (BKT transition, vortex dynamics) using matter-wave interferometry. AION is linked to MAGIS-100 at Fermilab.
Tim Freegarde's Quantum Control group develops atom interferometric sensors and matter-wave optics. Research: (1) optimal Raman pulse design for cold atom inertial sensors β geometric approach to Ο-pulse optimisation and robust control; (2) matter-wave interferometric velocimetry of cold atom clouds; (3) point-source interferometry for real-time scale-factor calibration of cold atom gyroscopes; (4) large-area atom interferometry. Part of the UK Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Metrology. Director of the CDT in Quantum Technology Engineering.