Technique - (35) Ultracold atom trapping (BEC/MOT)

Type: Experimental

Description: Laser cooling, magneto-optical trapping, and evaporative cooling to quantum degeneracy.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics (Atomic and Laser Physics Sub-department) | Ultracold Quantum Matter Group / AION Oxford (Foot Group) @ Oxford
Summary:

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.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics (Cavendish Laboratory) | Quantum Gases and Collective Phenomena @ Cambridge
Summary:

Hadzibabic's group uses homogeneous, box-trapped ultracold atomic Bose gases as a highly controllable platform to study fundamental many-body physics far from equilibrium, including superfluidity, Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics, and quantum turbulence.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics, Applied Physics | Hau Lab @ Harvard
Summary:

Hau is renowned for slowing light to bicycle speed and then stopping and coherently storing optical pulses in a Bose-Einstein condensate via electromagnetically induced transparency; her current program extends this quantum-optics platform to couple light-driven photosynthetic proteins with engineered nanostructures, bridging fundamental photon physics and biophysics.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Ultracold Strontium Laboratory (AION) @ Imperial
Summary:

Hobson co-leads the Ultracold Strontium Laboratory within the AION atom-interferometer collaboration, developing squeezed strontium atomic ensembles and quantum-non-demolition measurement techniques to beat the standard quantum limit in long-baseline atom-interferometric searches for dark matter and gravitational waves, alongside a parallel programme on ultra-precise, shock-resistant optical clocks. Actively recruiting postdocs as the group builds out its cold-atom laboratories.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Hogan Lab @ Stanford
Summary:

Hogan leads the Stanford effort on MAGIS-100, a 100-meter atom-interferometric gradiometer at Fermilab designed to search for mid-band gravitational waves and ultralight dark matter using laser-cooled strontium atoms in free fall. His group also develops compact cold-atom gravimeters and gradiometers and explores large-momentum-transfer atom optics to push interferometer sensitivity toward tests of general relativity.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics / Laboratoire Charles Fabry (IOGS/X) | Dipolar Quantum Systems Group (Ferrier-Barbut/Lahaye, LCF) @ X
Summary:

Thierry Lahaye (CNRS DR, LCF/IOGS) co-leads the quantum optics atoms group with Browaeys and Ferrier-Barbut. Research: (1) Rydberg atom tweezer arrays for quantum simulation of many-body spin Hamiltonians; (2) dipole-dipole interaction physics with Rydberg atoms; (3) cryogenic tweezer arrays (2000-site rearrangement at 4K, PRApplied 2024). Key architect of Pasqal's quantum computing platform.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Sorbonne UniversitΓ© | Quantum Networks Group (Laurat Group / LKB) @ Sorbonne
Summary:

Laurat leads the Quantum Networks team at LKB, developing quantum memories and atom-photon interfaces for quantum network applications. Research directions: (1) High-efficiency cold-atom quantum memories β€” DLCZ-protocol and AFC memories for telecom photons; demonstrating >90% efficiency and multimode operation; quantum cryptography integrating optical quantum memory (arXiv Mar 2025); (2) Waveguide QED β€” cold atoms coupled to nanofibers and nanophotonic waveguides for super-radiance, photon-bound states, and atom-photon gates; (3) Quantum network protocols β€” entanglement distribution, quantum repeater segments; part of European Quantum Flagship 'Quantum Internet Alliance'; (4) Hybrid entanglement β€” continuous-variable and discrete-variable hybrid entanglement for CHSH Bell tests (PRA 2024). Senior IUF member.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – QOLS / Centre for Cold Matter | Centre for Cold Matter – eEDM / Precision Molecular Sensing @ Imperial
Summary:

Lim is an Advanced Research Fellow jointly responsible for the ultracold eEDM experiment at Imperial. He contributed to demonstrating sub-Doppler laser cooling of YbF to 100 ΞΌK (PRL 2018), the first demonstration of laser cooling of a heavy polar molecule to ultracold temperatures. He now leads development of the lattice eEDM experiment, developing techniques for loading laser-cooled YbF into a 3D optical lattice for precision eEDM measurements with coherence times far exceeding those of the beam experiment.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics / Niels Bohr Institute | Quantum Metrology Group (MΓΌller Lab) @ UCPH
Summary:

JΓΆrg MΓΌller's Quantum Metrology group works on next-generation optical atomic clocks and superradiant lasers. Key experiments: cold strontium continuous superradiant laser (subnatural linewidth, pushing beyond traditional clock limitations); microresonator-based frequency combs; ultra-stable optical reference cavities; and cavity QED many-atom systems for clocks and sensing. The group is part of the EU iqClock project targeting operational optical lattice clocks.

Department(s)/lab(s): Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Physics | Ni Group @ Harvard
Summary:

Ni's group creates and controls individual molecules at the lowest achievable temperatures, using optical tweezers to study state-resolved ultracold chemical reactions and quantum effects in molecular collisions. Included here as a borderline precision-measurement/quantum-sensing platform (ultracold polar molecules), analogous to the eEDM/ultracold-molecule work elsewhere in the department, though her core emphasis is chemical reaction dynamics rather than device sensing.