Noise Reduction: JILA Researchers Use Spin Squeezing to Enhance Precision MeasurementJILA Scientists Achieve Breakthrough in Entanglement for Quantum Sensors and Atomic Clocks. Credit: scitechdaily.com

Innovative methods have been developed by scientists at JILA to entangle the properties of a large number of particles, opening up new possibilities for quantum sensors, atomic clocks, and tests of fundamental physics.

According to the researchers, entanglement is the key to achieving higher-precision measurements in noisy environments. Ana Maria Rey, a JILA and NIST Fellow, explains that entanglement is considered the "holy grail" of measurement science and atoms are the perfect sensors due to their universality. However, their quantum nature makes them susceptible to noise and the entanglement process can help reduce this noise.

One way to achieve entanglement is through spin squeezing, which narrows down the possible states of an atom to a few options. However, entangling atoms that are far apart is more challenging because their interactions are weaker. This is similar to people trying to communicate at a crowded party, where those far away can barely hear each other.

To overcome this distance problem, the JILA researchers experimented with 51 calcium ions lined up in a trap and used lasers to induce interactions between them. By adding external magnetic fields, the links between the ions became dynamic and all the atoms were able to talk to each other without losing the message along the way.

The result was a spin-squeezed state that later transformed into a cat state, named after Erwin Schrodinger's famous thought experiment. This state is highly entangled and can benefit measurement science.

In a separate study, the researchers used a technique called Rydberg dressing to excite 140 strontium atoms into a superposition state, allowing them to interact more strongly with each other. The researchers compared frequency measurements between groups of 70 atoms and found that entanglement improved precision below the standard quantum limit.

These new techniques hold potential for improving optical atomic clocks, which are important tools for measurement science and can contribute to the search for dark matter. The researchers also plan to expand their experiments to a two-dimensional array of atoms for even more precise measurements.

Overall, the JILA researchers have made significant strides in the field of entanglement and measurement science, which could lead to groundbreaking advancements in quantum sensors, atomic clocks, and tests of fundamental physics.

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