Quantum many‐body states

for precision measurement

James K. Thompson, NIST, JILA & Dept. of Physics at Univ. of Co
Precision Measurements: Things you can 

many quantum objects, that you can’t do 

Steady‐st

superradiant 

Spin squeezed states
Reducing Quantum Noise

World record entanglement for quantum s

Atoms cancel each other’s noise
Making Sharper Optical Rul

100x reduction in laser linewidth

for frequency, length, and gravity metro

Hide laser information in collective state o
Both Impact Wide Array of Measur

To go where nobody has gone before Magnetic & electric field

Force, pressure, temp.

G

Rotation,Acceleration
A Lineage of Quantum Control F

Control of Internal

Atomic States

Single Ion/Electron

Trapping

1989 1997

Laser Cooling

& Trapping

2001

Bose Einstein

Condensation

2005

Coherent Optical

Control
Nearly Complete Control of Single 

What’s next!?

credit: Nobel
Parallel Control of Independent A

credit: Nobel
Ultra‐Precise

Atomic Clocks

0.000 000 000 000 000 0

(courtesy Ye group)

(credit Hubble)

World’s most precise absolute measurement o
Matterwave Interferomete

Einstein’s equivalencDetermine gravitatioDetect gravity waves

Use pulses of light to spatially

split the atomic wave function

Credit: A. Peters group

GPS free navigationGyroscopes AccelerometersGravimetryFundamental constants of natureTests of QEDTest atomic charge neutrality
Parallel Control of Independent A

credit: Nobel

But what’s next?!
Vision for New Frontier of Prec

Measurements

Can we move beyond the single atom p
Precision Measurements: Things you can 

many quantum objects, that you can’t do 

• Core NIST mission• Critical advances in measurement scienc
Two Complex Experimental System
Canceling Quantum Fuzziness with

Entanglement

JG Bohnet, KC Cox, MA Norcia, JM W

Nature Photonics 8, 731‐736 (2014)
Quantum Certainty Princ

all atoms are identical

Why Use Atoms/Molecules? Ac
Quantum Mechanics Giveth and Tak

Quantum Certainty Quantum 

Energy

12

9 

10

11

8

7

6

Fundamental l

quantum s
Squeezing Quantum Noise

fuzzy state of

independent atoms Measure Pointing

squeez

of enta

Cavity enables

collective measurement
200

Trial #

Surpassing the Standard Quantum 

Angle

Trial #

200 0

Angle

JG Bohnet, KC Cox, MA Norcia, JM Weiner, Z Chen, JKT Nature Photonics 8, 731‐7
Entangled atoms cancel each othe

quantum noise

Precision Measurements: Things you can do w

quantum objects, that you can’t do with o
World Record Entangleme

15

101520253035404550556065

Improvement over Standard Quantum Limit 10

0 101 10

2 10

3 10

4 10

5 10

6 

Atom or Ion Number

GaTech

Chapman

MIT

Vuletic

Innsbruck

Blatt

Vienna

Schmiedmayer

Basel

Treutlein

Barcelon

Mitchel

Copenhagen

Polzik Heidelberg Oberthaler

Hannover

Klempt

JILA

Thompson

17.6(4) dB

NIST

Wineland

Stanford

Kasevich

(unpublished)

Directly observed enhancement over SQL with no background sub
Technology: Matterwave Interfero

Einstein’s equivalence pr

Determine gravitational cDetect gravity waves?

GPS free navigationGyroscopes AccelerometersGravimetryFundamental constants of natureTests of QEDTest atomic charge neutrality

Use pulses of light to spatially

split the atomic wave function

Credit: A. Peters group
Technology: Optical Lattice Clo

Many Key Advantages of Optical Approach

• Extended to our strontium system• Improved optical lattice clocks of Ye, Ludlow 

• Very fast: 40 s

• Avoids inaccuracies

• Non‐destructive for higher bandwidth

M.A. Norcia, J.K. Thompson arxiv:1506.02297 (2015)
Superradiant Lasers:

Ultraprecise Rulers of

Time and Space

JG Bohnet,

Z Chen, JM Weiner,

D Meiser, MJ Holland & JKT, Nature 484, 78‐81, April 5, 2
Collective Synchronizatio

Atoms collectively store information ins
bacteria

Laser is the Central Ruler of Time & 

Optical Atomic Clock

Quantum

atoms

Optical frequency c

Classical

probe laser

Microw

Laser 106 :1 

Reduction Gear
A Sharper Ruler
A Sharper Ruler
IMS: Two Innovative Paths

Ye Lab: New Optical Materials Thompson Lab: Superra

Goal: x 100 improRadically different Quiet laser lab no

Atoms

Pho

(~ 

Thompson, Ye, Jin, Holland, Rey, Gorshkov
Lasing on ultranarrow atomic tran

Strontium

1 S0

3P0

Lifetime 150 seconds

>10,000 x less sensitive to cavity n

~1 mHz quantum linewidth, Q~ 1

Laser Power

(nW)

Time (s)

Stepping Stone: Lasing on 7.5 kHz 3P

Meiser, Ye, Carlson, Holland, PRL 102, 163601 (2009)

JG Bohnet, Z Chen, JM Weiner, D Meiser, MJ Holland & JKT, Nature 484, 78‐8
Gravity’s Impact on Time

Proposed IMS work: ~1 cm in 1 se

~ 30 cm 

NIST 

Frequency shift

Measure
Vision for New Frontier of Prec

Measurements

Can we move beyond the single atom p
Thanks to the TeamSummary :

StrontiumMatthew NorciaKarl MayerMatthew Winchester

Collaborators

Murray J. Holland, Jun Ye, Ana Maria

Rey, Debbie Jin, Alexey Gorshkov,

Andrew Daley, Michael Foss‐Feig,

Dominic Meiser, M. Xu, D. Tieri, E. Fine

DARPA QUASAR, ARO, ONR, NSF PFC, NIST, NSF GRF, NDSE

REU StudentsDaniel Barker (JQI)

Steven Moses (JILA)

Katherine McAlpine (UW)Elissa Picozzi (Whitman Colleg

Michelle Chalupnik (U. Chicago

Rubidium

Justin Bohnet (NRC postdoc)

Kevin Cox

Joshua Weiner

Zilong Chen (Data Storage Inst.)

Graham GreveJiayan Dai, Shannon Sankar