Topic: Building a crystal atom by atom using levitated atomic ions
Abstract:
My research involves using crystals of levitated atomic ions to study new and exotic phases of matter. These tiny crystals, typically only 10 to 50 atoms long, are levitated using electric forces and isolated from the outside world in a steel chamber under ultra-high vacuum. The behavior of these crystals is governed by quantum mechanics, the field of physics that describes interactions between very small objects. With quantum mechanics in play, the crystals can form phases of matter different than the solid, liquid, and gas familiar from everyday life. Our ability to generate and control these unique quantum phases in the lab gives us a tool to test theoretical predictions in many-body quantum physics. By reducing these complicated theories down to their most essential parts and testing them in our experiments, we hope to learn how quantum mechanics contributes to the properties of exotic materials, like high-temperature superconductors.
Biography:
Paul Hess, Ph.D., is thrilled to have been teaching physics at Middlebury since 2017. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) at the University of Maryland. There he used atomic trapping and cooling techniques to levitate strings of atomic ions in an ultra-high vacuum chamber for quantum physics research. He earned his Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University in 2014 and a B.A. in astrophysics from Williams College in 2008. He has always had an interest in precisely studying the fundamental properties of atoms and molecules, and as part of the ACME collaboration at Harvard, he used a beam of polar molecules to perform the most precise search to date for a theorized asymmetry in the shape of electrons. He was awarded the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Fellowship to support his precision measurement research, and the Harold T. White Prize in teaching from Harvard University.