Atomic and molecular physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    The SI second is based on caesium microwave fountains, but optical lattice clocks show increasingly greater performances. This work presents two strontium optical lattice clocks agreeing better than their comparison to three fountains, suggesting that such clocks may realize a better definition of the second.

    • R. Le Targat
    • , L. Lorini
    •  & J. Lodewyck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Franck–Condon principle—frozen nuclear positions during electronic motion—is used to explain many physical phenomena. Garcia et al.show how this breaks down in a photoionized chiral molecule via the vibrational dependence of the photoelectron angular asymmetry in the laboratory frame.

    • Gustavo A. Garcia
    • , Laurent Nahon
    •  & Ivan Powis

  • Article |

    Controlling p-wave interactions between fermions would enable studies of interesting quantum phenomena. Towards this end, Juliá-Díaz et al. propose a combination of strongly confined nanoplasmonic traps and laser-induced gauge fields that could produce the necessary coupling of atomic states.

    • B. Juliá-Díaz
    • , T. Graß
    •  & M. Lewenstein

  • Article |

    Ultracold atoms in optical lattices are promising for quantum information applications, but it is important to address individual sites with high accuracy and low cross-talk. Lee et al.adapt inhomogeneous control methods to improve the performance of single-qubit gates for selected sites.

    • J. H. Lee
    • , E. Montano
    •  & P. S. Jessen

  • Article |

    The transfer of spin polarization from electrons to nuclei is important for nuclear spin-based techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance. Here Wang and colleagues achieve sensitive magnetic control of the hyperpolarization of nuclei near optically polarized nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond.

    • Hai-Jing Wang
    • , Chang S. Shin
    •  & Vikram S. Bajaj

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bright solitary waves in Bose–Einstein condensates are analogues of solitons in conventional wave systems, and may enable interesting tests of many-body quantum systems. Using 85Rb, Marchant et al.show the controlled formation of bright solitary matter-waves, and their reflection from a repulsive barrier.

    • A. L. Marchant
    • , T. P. Billam
    •  & S. L. Cornish

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The application of astatine, one of the rarest elements on the earth, in the treatment of cancer requires a better understanding of its chemistry. Rothe et al. report the first measurement of the ionization potential of astatine, against which high-level quantum calculations are benchmarked.

    • S. Rothe
    • , A. N. Andreyev
    •  & K. D. A. Wendt

  • Article |

    The unusual properties of entangled photons endow them with useful properties for imaging and metrology tasks. This work simulates the use of entangled photons for controlling two-exciton states in Blastochloris viridis, showing their advantages for studying excitation pathways in bacterial reaction centres.

    • Frank Schlawin
    • , Konstantin E. Dorfman
    •  & Shaul Mukamel

  • Article |

    Nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond are a promising route for solid-state quantum information processing and magnetometry, but longer coherence times are needed to optimize protocols. Here, Bar-Gill et al. suppress decoherence to realize nitrogen-vacancy spin coherence times approaching one second.

    • N. Bar-Gill
    • , L.M. Pham
    •  & R.L. Walsworth

  • Article |

    Ultrashort electron bunches are promising for diffraction measurements of structural dynamics, particularly in surfaces, thin films or membrane proteins. With this goal in mind, Engelen et al.generate high-coherence ultrafast electron bunches by photoionisation of laser-cooled atoms.

    • W. J. Engelen
    • , M. A. van der Heijden
    •  & O. J. Luiten

  • Article |

    Ultrashort electron bunches are promising for diffractive imaging measurements of structural dynamics, particularly in small or delicate structures. To this end, McCulloch et al. use a two-colour photoionization process to generate high-coherence ultrafast electron bunches from laser-cooled atoms.

    • A. J. McCulloch
    • , D. V. Sheludko
    •  & R. E. Scholten

  • Article |

    Studying the structural dynamics of clusters of just a handful of atoms is challenging. But by imaging a cluster of six silicon atoms trapped in a pore of a sheet of graphene with an electron microscope, Lee et al. observe the reversible switching of the cluster between different metastable structural states.

    • Jaekwang Lee
    • , Wu Zhou
    •  & Sokrates T. Pantelides

  • Article |

    Helium has not, to date, been observed crystallographically. Here, the authors report the first crystallographic observation of a helium atom, encapsulated in a fullerene, and show that it exerts a small but detectable influence on the electronic structure of a coencapsulated nitrogen atom.

    • Yuta Morinaka
    • , Satoru Sato
    •  & Yasujiro Murata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Alkali vapours are increasingly useful in photonic research and metrology applications, and they provide a useful test bed for investigating light–matter interaction. Stern et al. integrate silicon nitride waveguides with alkali vapours to study light–matter interactions on a chip-scale platform.

    • Liron Stern
    • , Boris Desiatov
    •  & Uriel Levy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measuring atomic spectra in high magnetic fields is important for understanding astrophysical objects such as white dwarfs, but laboratory fields are too small to do so. Murdin et al. study the analogous spectra of phosphorous-doped silicon, whose material properties scale the equivalent field to far lower values.

    • B.N. Murdin
    • , Juerong Li
    •  & P.G. Murdin

  • Article |

    One of the advantages that it is hoped quantum computers will have over classical computers is their ability to accurately simulate quantum phenomena. Silveri et al.take a step towards this goal by simulating so-called motional averaging in an artificial atom realized by a superconducting quantum bit.

    • Jian Li
    • , M.P. Silveri
    •  & G.S. Paraoanu

  • Article |

    Molecules in intense laser fields have enhanced multiple ionization rates, caused by the ionic core and laser fields acting on the part of the molecule in the up-field. Here, direct proof of this model is presented by studying the instantaneous effect of the field direction during double ionization in ArXe.

    • J. Wu
    • , M. Meckel
    •  & R. Dörner

  • Article |

    Trapped ions and atoms coexist at different temperatures in mixed systems, and cooling of ions through collisions with atoms is required for the mixture to stabilize. Raviet al. study these effects using rubidium atoms and ions, and find a collisional cooling mechanism leading to stability of the mixture.

    • K. Ravi
    • , Seunghyun Lee
    •  & S.A. Rangwala

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum metrology employs the properties of quantum states to further enhance the accuracy of some of the most precise measurement schemes to date. Here, a method for estimating the upper bounds to achievable precision in quantum-enhanced metrology protocols in the presence of decoherence is presented.

    • Rafał Demkowicz-Dobrzański
    • , Jan Kołodyński
    •  & Mădălin Guţă

  • Article |

    Controlling the behaviour of single molecules on electrode interfaces is crucial for the development of molecular spintronics. This study reports spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy data of the spin-split molecular orbitals of a single-molecule magnet adsorbed on a cobalt surface.

    • Jörg Schwöbel
    • , Yingshuang Fu
    •  & Roland Wiesendanger

  • Article |

    Absorption imaging relies on the capture of photons by an object to create intensity contrasts, allowing for the visualization of small quantum systems. Streedet al. demonstrate the first absorption imaging of an isolated ytterbium ion, with contrast at the limit of semiclassical theory.

    • Erik W. Streed
    • , Andreas Jechow
    •  & David Kielpinski

  • Article |

    Scanning probe microscopy and related techniques rely on the availability of very sharp tips. Here, a sharpening technique based on field-directed sputtering is demonstrated, resulting in ultrasharp metallic tips for use in scanning tunnelling microscopy as well as atomic-scale lithographic experiments.

    • S.W. Schmucker
    • , N. Kumar
    •  & J.W. Lyding

  • Article |

    Nitrogen-vacancy colour centres in diamond are promising examples for solid-state multi-spin-qubit systems. Here, the spin environment of nitrogen vacancy centres is studied spectroscopically, uncovering a mechanism for spin-flip suppression that opens the way for quantum information applications.

    • N. Bar-Gill
    • , L.M. Pham
    •  & R. Walsworth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studying the dynamics of electrons is important for understanding fundamental processes in materials. Here the ionization of a pair of electrons in argon atoms is explored on attosecond timescales, offering insight into their correlated emission and the double ionization mechanism.

    • Boris Bergues
    • , Matthias Kübel
    •  & Matthias F. Kling

  • Article |

    Electron spins at nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond are thought to be the most promising building blocks for practical realizations of quantum computers. Yaoet al. present a scalable architecture for a quantum information processor based on such vacancy centres that operates at room temperature.

    • N.Y. Yao
    • , L. Jiang
    •  & M.D. Lukin

  • Article |

    Single-photon emitters are important for developing quantum technologies, but their integration with existing devices requires them to be driven by electric fields. Here, an organic light-emitting diode is presented that emits single photons from guest molecules in an applied electric field at room temperature.

    • Maximilian Nothaft
    • , Steffen Höhla
    •  & Jörg Wrachtrup

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum mechanics predicts that objects can simultaneously exist in a superposition of two states. Kneeet al.propose and demonstrate experimentally a protocol which fully confirms this prediction, by testing the so-called Leggett–Garg inequality in a non-invasive manner.

    • George C. Knee
    • , Stephanie Simmons
    •  & Simon C. Benjamin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inertial sensors using atom interferometry have applications in geophysics, navigation- and space-based tests of fundamental physics. Here, the first operation of an atom accelerometer during parabolic flights is reported, demonstrating high-resolution measurements at both 1g and 0g.

    • R. Geiger
    • , V. Ménoret
    •  & P. Bouyer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single atoms can be detected using optical resonators that extend the lifetime of the photon. Here, the authors demonstrate fast, high-fidelity detection of very low atom densities using a microfabricated optical cavity to couple the detection light with the atoms.

    • J. Goldwin
    • , M. Trupke
    •  & E.A. Hinds

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fractional quantum Hall effect occurs when electrons move in Landau levels. In this study, using a theoretical flat-band lattice model, the fractional quantum Hall effect is observed in the presence of repulsive interactions when the band is one third full and in the absence of Landau levels.

    • D.N. Sheng
    • , Zheng-Cheng Gu
    •  & L. Sheng

  • Article |

    A quantum simulator can follow the evolution of a prescribed model, whose behaviour may be difficult to determine. Here, the emergence of magnetism is simulated by implementing a quantum Ising model, providing a benchmark for simulations in larger systems.

    • R. Islam
    • , E.E. Edwards
    •  & C. Monroe

  • Article |

    Interactions between charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in correlated electron systems have resulted in predictions of new electronic phases of matter. Carlson and Dahmen propose two protocols for detecting disordered electron nematics in condensed matter systems using non-equilibrium methods.

    • E.W. Carlson
    •  & K.A. Dahmen

  • Article |

    Anyons are particles with fractional statistics that interpolate between bosons and fermions, and are thought to exist in low-dimensional systems. Keilmannet al. propose an experimental system to create anyons in one-dimensional optical lattices using assisted Raman tunnelling.

    • Tassilo Keilmann
    • , Simon Lanzmich
    •  & Marco Roncaglia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bose–Einstein condensation of excitons in thermal equilibrium is a predicted quantum statistical phenomenon that has been difficult to observe. Yoshiokaet al. cool trapped excitons to sub-Kelvin temperatures and show that condensation manifests itself as a relaxation explosion as has been observed for atomic hydrogen.

    • Kosuke Yoshioka
    • , Eunmi Chae
    •  & Makoto Kuwata-Gonokami

  • Article |

    Speckle patterns are a manifestation of decoherence and can result from two-particle interference. Here, the authors image atomic speckle for guided matter waves and link this to atom bunching in the second-order correlation function, suggesting potential use in squeezed-atom interferometry applications.

    • R.G. Dall
    • , S.S. Hodgman
    •  & A.G. Truscott

  • Article |

    Single-molecule force spectroscopy is used to study single molecule interactions, but probing short-lived events is difficult. Here, a nanomechanical interface is developed, which allows the study of microsecond timescale interactions.

    • Mingdong Dong
    •  & Ozgur Sahin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficient memory systems are vital for the development of quantum communications technologies. Hosseini and colleagues describe an optical memory based on warm rubidium vapour that achieves 87% pulse recall efficiency, illustrating the potential of warm atomic vapour systems for quantum memory.

    • M. Hosseini
    • , B.M. Sparkes
    •  & B.C. Buchler

  • Article |

    Error correction in quantum computing can be implemented using transversal gates, which in turn rely on the availability of so-called magic states. The authors experimentally show that it is possible to improve the fidelity of these states by distilling five of them into one.

    • Alexandre M. Souza
    • , Jingfu Zhang
    •  & Raymond Laflamme

  • Article |

    Improving the properties of metallic alloys is important to develop new lightweight materials. In this paper, we show that an aluminium (Al) alloy containing a hierarchy of nanostructures in a solid solution with a high density of dislocations is capable of beating strength records for Al alloys while maintaining good ductility.

    • Peter V. Liddicoat
    • , Xiao-Zhou Liao
    •  & Simon P. Ringer

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