Quantum

CU Boulder, Elevate Quantum partners ready for $127M regional quantum boost

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 16:42:34 +0000

CU Boulder, Elevate Quantum partners ready for $127M regional quantum boost Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/02/2024 - 10:42

Elevate Quantum, of which CU Boulder is a key partner, announced today that it has received a Tech Hub Phase 2 implementation award from the Department of Commerce, unlocking more than $127 million in new federal and state funding. The award is expected to drive more than $2 billion in additional private capital and cement the Mountain West as a global leader for quantum innovation.

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CU and Sen. Michael Bennet celebrate quantum hub news, hear from students

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 20:42:17 +0000

CU and Sen. Michael Bennet celebrate quantum hub news, hear from students Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/27/2023 - 14:42

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet visited campus Oct. 20, and the trip to campus became an unexpected cause for celebration about Colorado’s place in the nation’s burgeoning quantum ecosystem.

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Leadership highlights investment, new projects at quantum engineering lab ribbon cutting

Anonymous — Tue, 30 May 2023 19:50:32 +0000

Leadership highlights investment, new projects at quantum engineering lab ribbon cutting Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/30/2023 - 13:50

Leaders from across the CU Boulder campus and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) gathered last week to celebrate the official launch of the Quantum Engineering Initiative Lab space within the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

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New $15M NASA grant will support quantum sensors in space

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 19:58:04 +0000

New $15M NASA grant will support quantum sensors in space Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/16/2023 - 13:58

A multi-university research team, including engineers and physicists from CU Boulder, will build technology and tools to improve measurement of important climate factors by observing atoms in outer space.

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Diddams receives prestigious Mees Medal for ground-breaking optics research that transcends boundaries

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 16:11:43 +0000

Diddams receives prestigious Mees Medal for ground-breaking optics research that transcends boundaries Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/01/2023 - 09:11

Josh Rhoten

Scott Diddams

Professor Scott Diddams has been selected for the 2023 C.E.K. Mees Medal from Optica (formerly OSA) for his pioneering innovations leading to the wide-ranging application of optical frequency combs to ultrafast lasers, optical clocks, spectroscopy, microwave synthesis, and astronomy.

The medal was established in memory of C.E.K. Mees, who contributed preeminently to the development of scientific photography. The Mees family endowed the medal to recognize achievements that exemplify the thought that "optics transcends all boundaries." It has been presented annually since 1962 by Optica – the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field.

The award is one of several given by Optica – the world’s largest professional society focused on optical sciences with about 22,000 members. Previous Mees award recipients include Nobel Prize winners and many other leaders in the field.

“I am honored to receive this award and I am very appreciative of the many students and colleagues who I have worked with over the years,” Diddams said. “The award is equally a recognition of their contributions to this field of research. When we built the first frequency comb at JILA in 1999, we had no idea of the breadth of applications it would enable and the many different fields it could impact. It continues to be exciting to see the new discoveries and innovations.”

Diddams holds the Robert H. Davis Endowed Chair at CU Boulder where he is a professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering as well as physics. He received his PhD from the University of New Mexico in 1996 and did postdoctoral work at JILA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the CU Boulder before becoming a research physicist, group leader, and fellow at NIST. In 2022 he transitioned to his present position where he also assumed the role of faculty director of the Quantum Engineering Initiative in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

As a postdoc Diddams built the first optical frequency combs in the lab of Nobel laureate John Hall and throughout his career has pioneered the use of these powerful tools for optical clocks, tests of fundamental physics, novel spectroscopy, and astronomy. His research has been documented in more than 750 peer-reviewed publications, conference papers, and invited talks. His other awards include the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, the Department of Commerce Gold and Silver Medals for "revolutionizing the way frequency is measured,” as well as the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE), the IEEE Photonics Society Laser Instrumentation Award, and the IEEE Rabi award. He is a Fellow of Optica and the American Physical Society, and a Senior Member of IEEE.

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QEI Collaboration Lab opening to foster high-impact research in quantum engineering

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 21:23:52 +0000

QEI Collaboration Lab opening to foster high-impact research in quantum engineering Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/10/2022 - 15:23

Jonathan Raab

Professors Greg Rieker (left) and Scott Diddams conducting research in the the Precision Laser Diagnostics for Energy and the Environment in 2021. The pair will work together in the new Quantum Engineering Initiative Collaboration Lab which will open on Sept. 26.

Researchers from CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will be better able to coordinate their efforts with the recent opening of the Quantum Engineering Initiative (QEI) Collaboration Lab on Sept. 26. This new, 1,500 square foot space in the Engineering Center will encourage cross-campus research and experiments in the high-impact field of quantum engineering. Collaborators will conduct research into quantum computing, optical clocks, quantum sensors and networks, hybrid quantum systems and more according to Robert H. Davis Endowed Chair in �鶹��Ƶy Learning Scott Diddams.

“This is a topical area of significant interest and importance across the U.S. — and in fact the world — and the new space will strengthen CU Boulder’s impact on the field of quantum engineering,” Diddams said.

Plans for the lab – located in room 1B25 of the northwest wing of the Engineering Center – go back to 2019. That is when Associate Professor Greg Rieker and then-Associate Dean for Research Massimo Ruzzene first proposed the Quantum Engineering Initiative and dedicated lab space. Dean Keith Molenaar approved the funding for the partnership in 2021, which coincided with the hiring of professor Diddams and other activity to strengthen this research area in the college.

“The space was envisioned to fill a critical gap in transitioning the amazing quantum science research on the CU Boulder campus to engineered devices that could operate outside the research lab,” said Rieker.

The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences is providing internal funding for equipment and infrastructure to benefit of quantum researchers in the college as part of its ongoing investment in the field through the initiative said current Acting Associate Dean for Research Shideh Dashti.

“This space demonstrates the commitment we have to leading in the field of quantum research, now and in the future,” said Dashti. “I am excited that the moment is quickly approaching when students, faculty, staff and partners from across campus – and in the Boulder area – can meet and collaborate in this space."

The quantum lab partnership between CU Boulder and NIST looks to emulate the impact of JILA, a 60-year collaboration between the two organizations, which has yielded exciting outcomes in the field of physics.

“The QEI Collaboration Lab is the first step towards a complementary engineering-focused collaboration between the organizations,” Diddams said.

The QEI Collaboration Lab benefited from resources and contributions provided by researchers and staff from many groups including:

The College of Engineering and Applied Science
NIST
The Department of Physics
Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering
The Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences
The Department of Computer Science
JILA
CUbit Quantum Initiative

Research faculty and students interested in learning more about the lab are encouraged to contact Diddams and Rieker by email.

Researchers from CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will be better able to coordinate their efforts with the opening of the Quantum Engineering Initiative (QEI) Collaboration Lab on Sept. 26.

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As U.S. ramps up semiconductor production, engineers are probing new tiny electronics

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:35:02 +0000

As U.S. ramps up semiconductor production, engineers are probing new tiny electronics Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/30/2022 - 11:35

A number of researchers at CU Boulder are celebrating the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act by Congress.

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Webinar planned to showcase x-ray and electron microscopy facilities

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 14:11:22 +0000

Webinar planned to showcase x-ray and electron microscopy facilities Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/27/2021 - 08:11

Josh Rhoten

A student working in the COSINC lab.

The Colorado Shared Instrumentation in Nanofabrication and Characterization (COSINC) facility and the Materials Instrumentation and Multimodal Imaging Core (MIMIC) facility will host a joint virtual webinar from noon to 2 p.m. on Nov. 18 via Zoom.

Both facilities are housed within the College of Engineering and Applied Science and are open for interdisciplinary use and study by the public, faculty, students, and staff. Together these facilities enable research into energy materials, semiconductors, biomaterials, device inspection, optics, photonics, geological materials, material sciences, forensics, bio-medical, and quantum science. This free virtual session will include hands-on demonstrations and background information on the facilities with the first hour dedicated to x-ray microscopy and the second to electron microscopy.

COSINC is a multidisciplinary core research facility and service center that provides access to state-of-the-art equipment in the areas of micro and nanofabrication, ISO 5 cleanroom, nanomaterials characterization and metrology. It also offers expertise and advanced hands-on training in the same areas. MIMIC also contains state-of-the-art equipment to assess the structural, mechanical and chemical properties of materials down to the submicron scale. Both facilities are open, fee-for-service facility accessible to all researchers including academic, governmental, industrial and individuals.

For more information, contact COSINC Director Aju Jugessur or MIMIC Director Adrian Gestos by email.

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Cool it: Nano-scale discovery could help prevent overheating in electronics

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 16:55:33 +0000

Cool it: Nano-scale discovery could help prevent overheating in electronics Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/22/2021 - 10:55

A team of physicists at CU Boulder has solved the mystery behind a perplexing phenomenon in the nano realm: why some ultra-small heat sources cool down faster if you pack them closer together. The findings, which will publish this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could one day help the tech industry design speedier electronic devices that overheat less.

“Often heat is a challenging consideration in designing electronics. You build a device then discover that it’s heating up faster than desired,” said study co-author Joshua Knobloch, postdoctoral research associate at JILA, a joint research institute between CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). “Our goal is to understand the fundamental physics involved so we can engineer future devices to efficiently manage the flow of heat.”

A laser heats up ultra-thin bars of silicon. (Credit: Steven Burrows/JILA)

The research began with an unexplained observation. In 2015, researchers led by physicists Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn at JILA were experimenting with bars of metal that were many times thinner than the width of a human hair on a silicon base. When they heated those bars up with a laser, something strange occurred.

“They behaved very counterintuitively,” Knobloch said. “These nano-scale heat sources do not usually dissipate heat efficiently. But if you pack them close together, they cool down much more quickly.”

Now, the researchers know why this happens.

In the new study, they used computer-based simulations to track the passage of heat from their nano-sized bars. They discovered that when they placed the heat sources close together, the vibrations of energy they produced began to bounce off each other, scattering heat away and cooling the bars down.

The group’s results highlight a major challenge in designing the next generation of tiny devices, such as microprocessors or quantum computer chips: When you shrink down to very small scales, heat does not always behave the way you think it should.

Atom by atom

The transmission of heat in devices matters, the researchers added. Even minute defects in the design of electronics like computer chips can allow temperature to build up, adding wear and tear to a device. As tech companies strive to produce smaller and smaller electronics, they’ll need to pay more attention than ever before to phonons—vibrations of atoms that carry heat in solids.

“Heat flow involves very complex processes, making it hard to control,” Knobloch said. “But if we can understand how phonons behave on the small scale, then we can tailor their transport, allowing us to build more efficient devices.”

To do just that, Murnane and Kapteyn and their team of experimental physicists joined forces with a group of theorists led by Mahmoud Hussein, professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. His group specializes in simulating, or modeling, the motion of phonons.

“At the atomic scale, the very nature of heat transfer emerges in a new light,” said Hussein who also has a courtesy appointment in the Department of Physics.

The researchers essentially recreated their experiment from several years before, but this time, entirely on a computer. They modeled a series of silicon bars, laid side by side like the slats in a train track and heated them up.

The simulations were so detailed, Knobloch said, that the team could follow the behavior of each and every atom in the model—millions of them in all—from start to finish.

“We were really pushing the limits of memory of the Summit Supercomputer at CU Boulder,” he said.

Directing heat

The technique paid off. The researchers found, for example, that when they spaced their silicon bars far enough apart, heat tended to escape away from those materials in a predictable way. The energy leaked from the bars and into the material below them, dissipating in every direction.

When the bars got closer together, however, something else happened. As the heat from those sources scattered, it effectively forced that energy to flow more intensely in a uniform direction away from the sources—like a crowd of people in a stadium jostling against each other and eventually leaping out of the exit. The team denoted this phenomenon “directional thermal channeling.”

“This phenomenon increases the transport of heat down into the substrate and away from the heat sources,” Knobloch said.

The researchers suspect that engineers could one day tap into this unusual behavior to gain a better handle on how heat flows in small electronics—directing that energy along a desired path, instead of letting it run wild.

For now, the researchers see the latest study as what scientists from different disciplines can do when they work together.

“This project was such an exciting collaboration between science and engineering—where advanced computational analysis methods developed by Mahmoud’s group were critical for understanding new materials behavior uncovered earlier by our group using new extreme ultraviolet quantum light sources,” said Murnane, also a professor of physics.

This research was supported by the STROBE National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center on Real-Time Functional Imaging.

Other CU Boulder coauthors on the new research include Hossein Honarvar, a postdoctoral researcher in aerospace engineering sciences and JILA and Brendan McBennett, a graduate student at JILA. Former JILA researchers Travis Frazer, Begoña Abad and Jorge Hernandez-Charpak also contributed to the study.

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New quantum 'stopwatch' can improve imaging technologies

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 18:30:55 +0000

New quantum 'stopwatch' can improve imaging technologies Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/24/2021 - 12:30

Electrical engineering researchers at CU Boulder have designed one of the most precise stopwatches yet — one that can count single photons. The group published its results this week in the journal Optica.

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