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)

5/29/08 - David Moehring wins the 2008 DAMOP Thesis Prize!

4/24/08 - David Moehring takes two Univ. Michigan awards: the Distinguished Dissertation Award from the Graduate School, and the Terwilliger Thesis Prize from the Physics Department.

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 trap on-a-chip makes Scientific American "Top 50" trends in research

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

8/1/08 Ytterbium-171 crystals in a tightly-confining microtrap

4/18/08 Bell Inequality Measured with two widely-separated massive particles. Quantum mechanics pulls out yet another victory.

4/1/08 Very clean single photon source, emitted from a single ion. Raw autocorrelation measurement of photon coincidence:

11/19/2007 A "users manual" for Yb+ hyperfine qubits [S. Olmschenk, et al., Phys. Rev. A 76, 052314 (2007)]

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 JQI and University of Maryland.

9/6/07 Entanglement of two atoms separated by one meter

            Nature Vol 449, p68     Press Release

6/12/07 Magneto-optical trapping of neutral Cadmium

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

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.