Manipulating Quantum Systems An Assessment of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics in the United States (2020) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
7 Broader Impact of AMO Science
7 Broader Impact of AMO Science
Pages 223-252
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 223... ...
is a particularly remarkable example of the intersection of AMO physics with other disciplines. In this chapter, the committee discusses a range of topics outside AMO, or right at the boundaries of AMO and other scientific disciplines, listing a number of active examples where AMO physics is having strong impact.
|
From page 224... ...
AMO sciences have helped deepen our understanding of their function in our bodies, in normal as well as in diseased states, through advances in light sources and imaging/spectroscopy technologies, and through new ways to manipulate these components, such as with the optical tweezers mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. These newfound abilities have enabled investigation at ever higher resolution, and in situations/environments closer to native conditions.
|
From page 225... ...
. Optical tweezers apply pico-Newton scale forces, and detect a molecule's ~0.1 nm scale response through end-to-end distance measurements, but are blind to the intramolecular structural changes.
|
From page 226... ...
In (b) one sees the correlation between DNA unzipping activ ity, measured by optical tweezers and expressed in reaction velocity, and protein structural changes, measured by single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)
|
From page 227... ...
In MINFLUX, a fluorescent molecule is localized not where its intensity is maximal but where it is minimal by using a doughnut-shaped excitation spot. MINFLUX can achieve the same spatial resolution with one or two orders of magnitude fewer photons (hence its name M INFLUX)
|
From page 228... ...
Live cell imaging can also be performed with vibrational en ergy contrast, for example using stimulated Raman scattering microscopy, to probe cellular- and tissue-level dynamics with chemical specificity without the need to label the sample fluorescently. The committee expects that it may become possible to exploit quantum control effects through coherent control of light-responsive proteins to drive cell metabolism, behavior, function, and interactions.
|
From page 229... ...
AMO physics has been crucial in extracting much of what we have learned from such observations of cosmic phenomena. But while tremendous advances have resulted from these billion-dollar investments and the resulting observations, opportunities exist to learn far more by advancing our understanding of the basic underlying theory.
|
From page 230... ...
. By creating a large number of unrelated speckle patterns and averaging over them, we can now greatly reduce speckle noise without losing spatial resolution (see Figure 7.2.1b)
|
From page 231... ...
FIGURE 7.2.2 Panels a and b: Speckle reduction by using random laser. Panels c and d: Bimodal imaging achieves speckle-reduction by using low-coherence light (c)
|
From page 232... ...
Clues to the habitability of exoplanets are provided by their atmospheres. However, our ability to interpret exoplanetary atmospheres is limited by shortcomings in our under standing of the underlying molecular physics that generates the observed spectra.
|
From page 233... ...
in order to confirm the existence of the exoplanet, and to accurately determine its orbital parameters. It has until now been essentially impossible to maintain the required level of mechanical and optical stability over multiyear periods, so the continuous absolute frequency calibration by optical frequency combs will be revolutionary for exoplanet astronomy.
|
From page 234... ...
But our ability to interpret exoplanetary atmospheres is limited by shortcomings in our understanding of the underlying molecular physics that generates the observed spectra. The spectra of many molecules are incomplete, incorrect, or completely unknown.
|
From page 235... ...
Continued advances in AMO techniques hold the promise of expanding our ability to use gravitational waves to help unravel the mystery of the cosmos. In 2019, radio astronomers in the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration successfully completed a monumental 14-year quest to produce the first-ever image of
|
From page 236... ...
, synchronized and given long-term stability via the GPS satellite time system, which in turn is based on rubidium atomic clocks. Without these products of AMO science, the spectacular image shown in Figure 7.5 would not have been possible.
|
From page 237... ...
Specifically, systems can be realized and exquisitely controlled in AMO experiments, and in quantum gas microscopes in particular. Very recent experiments employing such a quantum gas microscope studied strings
|
From page 238... ...
CONDENSED MATTER AND AMO It was not all that long ago since Art Schawlow said, jokingly, of AMO physics that "a diatomic molecule has one atom too many." Nevertheless, for two decades now atomic physics has ventured well beyond two atoms, and well beyond even molecular physics. The impact of AMO physics on statistical mechanics and condensed-matter physics (CMP)
|
From page 239... ...
At the same time, techniques have been continually refined, becoming ever more controlled, having moved from simple optical lattices to quantum gas microscopes to the current degree of sublime control seen in optical tweezer arrays (highlighted in Chapters 3 and 4)
|
From page 240... ...
sheet by means of a quantum well, and the photons can be confined to the same region by a pair of surrounding mirrors that are highly reflecting. This results in the forma tion of highly coherent polaritons with lifetimes that are greatly enhanced by the confinement.
|
From page 241... ...
without any resistance. This can be directly observed experimentally by using a tilted laser beam to form the polariton condensate with nonzero momentum that allows the experimenter for the first time to directly image the quantum wave function associated with superfluid flow around obstacles.
|
From page 242... ...
ADVANCED ACCELERATOR CONCEPTS Another connection of AMO physics, this time to the high-energy frontier, is through accelerator physics. Although not a new idea, over the past decade break throughs in AMO science have led to laser technologies that will enable so-called wake-field accelerators that would be far more compact (and economical)
|
From page 243... ...
These systems are electrically reconfigurable, and enable one to solve computationally complex emerging applications in classical information processing, such as efficient quantum transport simulations in the presence of disorder, and machine learning. For a more general-purpose optical computer, additional information processing functionality -- such as nonlinear gates and storage -- are still required.
|
From page 244... ...
, which must measure movements of 10 kg mirrors by distances thousands of times smaller than the diameter of a proton in order to detect gravitational waves. Manufacturers of lasers, mirror substrates and coatings, and photodetectors have collaborated with LIGO scientists to build an optical system that operates with un precedented precision.
|
From page 245... ...
The enormous commercial investment in perfecting the multiple lenses and anti-reflection coatings in each telephoto lens pays off for basic science in the diffraction-limited images across a wide field of view. A key feature of the high optical quality of this commercial technology is that the lens coatings are not smooth, but rather covered with tiny cone-like projections smaller than the wavelength of light.
|
From page 246... ...
This approach to ion traps replaces the surface electrodes with a metal layer acting as the ground plane between a trapping layer and the underlying p-type doped sili con substrate. Incorporating the integrated photonics techniques described above, commercial CMOS technologies enable co-design and fabrication of robust and stable platforms for large-scale quantum processing in trapped ion arrays.
|
From page 247... ...
; • Cheaper, more efficient light sources; • Solar cells; • Enhanced navigation and communications; • Improved national security and defense; • Chemical, biological, and environmental sensors; and • Power transmission. In addition, many innovations -- such as high-resolution microscopes and telescopes, and frequency combs for metrology and communication -- substantially enhance our ability to do experimental science and build new commercially available disruptive technologies.
|
From page 248... ...
These tools will represent the know-how for high-yield silicon photonic device and circuit fabrication in much the same way that current electronic PDKs provide this service for the entire electronics industry. There is a rich opportunity here to continue the creation of AMO-inspired science and engineering user facilities at universities with state government and industry based joint support, as described next.
|
From page 249... ...
These companies provide a foundation for rapid-cycle innovation by providing off-theshelf sourcing for otherwise commercially unavailable, leading-edge tools and play a vital and central role in the research and development ecosystem. JOINTLY SPONSORED INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH LABORATORIES Interdisciplinary research laboratories and centers in AMO science and engineering-related areas at universities bring researchers and students together from different disciplines.
|
From page 250... ...
Subsequent advances in synthetic chemistry and materials science have dramatically improved the reach and impact of AMO science and its tools going beyond traditional AMO sciences. Yet, the cross-fertilization between AMO and other fields is not yet occurring at the highest speed possible because of lack of outreach in terms of awareness and availability of the new tools, techniques, and technologies.
|
From page 251... ...
Recommendation: State governments should encourage the exploitation of opportunities to compete for economic development in AMO-related s cience and engineering user facilities at universities using state funding and/or industrial joint support. Finding: The discussions of engineered quantum matter in Chapters 2 and 4 describe an important emerging field that brings together several disciplines of AMO physics to substantially increase the interaction between material and electromagnetic quantum states.
|
From page 252... ...
Finding: Astronomical observations have exposed significant shortcomings in our understanding of AMO science that will require significant scientific advances to address. In order to maximize the benefits of ground-based and satellite-based observations, new contributions from AMO theory and experi ment are needed to classify the species observed and to understand in detail the elementary atomic and molecular processes occurring in astrophysical environments.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.