In-Person: Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project - PML2000
Virtual Over Zoom: https://umich.zoom.us/j/97924298308?jst=2

Title: Precision measurements and quantum sensing using cold atoms

Abstract: Emerging applications of laser-cooled atomic gases are one of the drivers of modern quantum science and technology. In this talk, I will review several prominent examples and their interconnection with fundamental atomic physics and precision measurements. In the first part, I will describe how investigating photoionization of one of the excited states of rubidium led to the development and demonstration of a cold-atom-based ion source with the novel method of monitoring ionic electric fields using highly-excited (Rydberg) atoms. I will also present a new type of Rydberg molecule that is formed as a result of interactions between ions and Rydberg atoms. Next, I will describe precision measurements of the hyperfine structure of a different excited state in rubidium and how these investigations led to a proposal of a novel optical atomic clock that can be an alternative to existing portable technologies. Finally, if time permits, I will discuss a novel technique for atom interferometry based on uninterrupted full spatial confinement and control of atomic wave packets. This approach, termed “tractor atom interferometry”, aims to address drawbacks of the existing setups and provide new applications in fundamental physics and inertial sensing.

Bio: Alisher is originally from Kazakhstan, where he obtained his BS in Physics from Nazarbayev University in Astana. After two-semester stay at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, he came to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, from where he received his PhD in Physics in 2024, as well as MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2021. Alisher did his graduate work in the group of Professor Georg Raithel, where his areas of research included atomic, molecular and optical physics, laser cooling and trapping, Rydberg atoms and molecules, quantum sensing, and precision measurements. After one year as a postdoctoral researcher in Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, College Park, Alisher recently joined Rydberg Technologies Inc. as a research scientist/atomic physicist. He has received several awards and prizes, including Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, Wirt and Mary Cornwell Prize, ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award, and, more recently, Duncan Steel Thesis Prize.