Welcome to Prof. Christopher Monroe's research group at the University of Maryland Department of Physics and Joint Quantum Institute

Our group focuses on the electromagnetic manipulation of individual atoms and photons for fundamental studies of quantum mechanics and applications in quantum information science. 

A long term goal of our research is the fabrication of a large-scale quantum computer network, where complex entangled states of multiple atoms and photons store and process information in a way that could eclipse the performance of any conventional computer.  Our main tools are the radiofrequency ion trap and the laser, providing quantum control of the world's most pristine source of qubits: trapped atomic ions.

Cadmium Yellow Entangled, by Boris Blinov (2005)

4/1/08 - David Moehring takes two Univ. Michigan awards: the Distinguished Dissertation Award from the Graduate School, and the Terwilliger Thesis Prize from the Physics Department.

1/11/08 - David Moehring selected as one of four finalists for the 2008 DAMOP Thesis Prize

4/27/07 - Kelly Younge takes the 2007 Peter Franken Graduate Student Award

3/24/07 - Saturday Morning Physics "The Music of Quantum Physics"

3/17/07 - Saturday Morning Physics "The Physics Behind Music"

12/1/06 - Ion traps on-a-chip make Scientific American "50"

4/28/06 - Steven Olmschenk takes the 2006 Peter Franken Graduate Student Award, and David Hucul and Mark Yeo share the 2006 W. Williams Undergrad Thesis Award

Archived News

1/14/08 Bell Inequality Measured with two widely-separated massive particles. Quantum mechanics pulls out yet another victory!

11/16/07 Trapped ions at the University of Maryland.

10/1/07 Two trucks, filled with 50,000 lbs of ion trapping equipment, have arrived at our new labs at the University of Maryland and the JQI.

11/19/2007 Manipulation and detection of a trapped Yb+ hyperfine qubit
S. Olmschenk, K. C. Younge, D. L. Moehring, D. Matsukevich, P. Maunz, and C. Monroe, Phys. Rev. A 76, 052314 (2007).

            Nature Vol 449, p68     Press Release

6/12/07 Magneto-optical trapping of Cadmium

2/19/07 Detailed calculations of ion transport in trap arrays.

2/1/07 Review of quantum networking of trapped ions and photons.

12/29/06  Highly efficient loading of ions into traps using ultrafast pulses.

8/7/06  Near-perfect measurement of multiple qubits using a CCD camera.

8/5/06  Production of single photons and quantum interference of two photons

Funding for this research is provided by the Intellegence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA); the National Security Agency (NSA), the Army Research Office (ARO), the NSF Physics at the Information Frontier (PIF) Program; and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Mems-Exchange and Optical Lattice Emulator Programs.