AMO/QI Seminars

The Atomic Molecular and Optical physics (AMO) and Quantum Information (QI) seminar series at UC Berkeley aims to cover both scientific fields (AMO and QI) quite broadly, covering topics in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and other disciplines with relevance to the field. Similarly, this seminar series is intended to serve not only the AMO and QIS communities in the UC Berkeley Physics Department, but also others in our department, in other departments of the University, and our colleagues at the nearby Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Their presence at and input regarding our seminars is warmly encouraged.

A typical audience at our seminars consists of 30 or so students, postdocs and professors from these varied communities. Speakers should keep this makeup in mind when crafting their presentations, aiming to allow an attendee at the level of a first-year graduate student and a modest exposure to modern AMO and QI science to understand much of their presentation.

Seminars are held normally on Wednesdays during the academic year, from 11 am - 12 pm in 375 Physics North Hall. On special occasions, seminars may move in time and location, so please check the schedule for such possible changes. Speakers should prepare ~50 minute presentations, allowing time for questions during and after the talk.  Specific audio-visual needs beyond LCD projectors should be requested of the organizers before the talk.

Past AMO/QI Seminars

5/1/24 AMO/QI Seminar Michael Mills Quantinuum

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for the final AMO/QI seminar of the semester featuring Dr. Michael Mills of Quantinuum. He will be giving a talk titled: Benchmarking a racetrack trapped-ion quantum processor

Abstract:
The System Model H2, a quantum charge-coupled device (QCCD) trapped-ion system with a new racetrack-shaped trap, is Quantinuum's latest generation of quantum computers. The new system successfully incorporates several...

4/3/24 AMO/QI Seminar Dr. Josh Combes

Wednesday, April 3, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring Dr. Josh Combes, University of Colorado, Boulder. He will be giving a talk titled: Nonclassical light interacting with matter and nonclassical measurements

Abstract:

In this talk, I'll begin by summarizing a decade of research into the effects on matter interacting with non-classical light pulses, such as Schrödinger cat states or photon number states....

4/24/24 AMO/QI Seminar Neil Glikin's Dissertation Celebration!

Wednesday, April 24, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 374 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar to celebrate Dr. Neil Glikin’s completion of his dissertation! After his talk there will be a celebratory lunch. Here is a zoom link in case you cannot attend in person.
He will be giving a talk titled: Creating and Destroying Rotational Coherence with Trapped Ions

Abstract:
Far from being just qubits, trapped ions are also near-ideal quantum harmonic oscillators thanks to their external motion. Over the past few...

4/17/24 AMO/QI seminar Dr. Jon Simon, Stanford

Wednesday, April 17, 2024 11:00 AM 12:00 PM 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring Dr. Jon Simon, Stanford. He will be giving a talk titled: Racing to the Bottom: Low Finesse, Small Waist Cavity QED

Abstract:
In this seminar I’ll tell the story of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED) from first principles, building towards a new type of sub-micron waist resonator recently developed in the Simon/Schuster collaboration...

4/10/24 AMO/QI Seminar Jeremy Axelrod's Dissertation Celebration

Wednesday, April 10, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI Seminar for Dr. Jermey Axelrod’s Dissertation Celebration! Congratulations!! He will give a talk titled: A Laser Phase Plate for Transmission Electron Microscopy

Abstract:

Low image contrast is a major limitation in transmission electron microscopy, since samples with low atomic number only weakly phase-modulate the illuminating electron beam, and beam-induced sample damage limits the usable electron dose. The contrast can be increased by...

3/6/24 AMO/QI seminar Dr. Sara Murciano, CalTech

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring Dr. Sara Murciano, CalTech. She will be giving a talk titled: Measurements and symmetries on the fate of entanglement

Abstract:

Entanglement plays a key role in different fields of physics. This talk focuses on two aspects where understanding its behaviour yields intriguing results: measurements and symmetries. The first topic explores how weak measurements alter the properties of critical models: We identify different protocols wherein...

3/22/24 AMO/QI Seminar Dr. Nelson Oppong, JILA

Friday, March 22, 2024 3:30 - 4:30 pm 131 Campbell Hall

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring Dr. Nelson Oppong from JILA. Please note this seminar will take place on FRIDAY, March 22 from 1-2pm in 101 Campbell Hall. His talk is titled: Making, probing, and using 'Schrödinger cat' states in an optical clock

Abstract:
While optical atomic clocks continue to reach unprecedented levels of precision and accuracy, an important question concerns how quantum entanglement...

3/13/24 AMO/QI Seminar: Qual Club, Prof. Hartmut Haeffner

Wednesday, March 13, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

This week’s AMO/QI seminar is Qual Club, hosted by Prof. Hartmut Haeffner.

The AMO Qual Club is meant for our early-career graduate students who are learning broadly about AMO physics in preparation for their qualifying examination. This event is for graduate students, and in an effort to keep the gatherings more informal and less stressful, we ask professors, postdocs, undergraduate students, visitors and other researchers not to join us for this meeting.

2/7/24 AMO/QI Seminar Dr. Sophia Economou Virginia Tech

Wednesday, February 7, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring a talk by Dr. Sophia Economou from Virignia Tech.
Her talk is titled: Spin-photon interfaces: control and distribution of entanglement
Abstract:
Spin-photon interfaces are ubiquitous in quantum information processing and also feature intriguing physics culminating from the interplay of spin-spin, spin-photon, and spin-field interactions. In these systems,...

2/28/24 AMO/QI seminar Dr. Nathanan Tantivasadakarn, CalTech

Wednesday, February 28, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring Dr. Nathanan Tantivasadakarn, CalTech. He will be giving a talk titled, Sculpting quantum many-body states and quantum error correcting codes with measurements.

Abstract:
Quantum mechanics exhibits a stark dichotomy between unitary time-evolution and measurement. These aspects are further contrasted by the fact that traditional many-body quantum theory is developed solely based on unitary aspects. In this talk, I will...

2/21/24 AMO/QI seminar Dr. Harry Levine from AWS

Wednesday, February 21, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring Dr. Harry Levine from Amazon Web Services. He will be giving a talk titled: Novel strategies for hardware-efficient quantum processors

Abstract:
Quantum error correction is an exciting scientific frontier at the interface of many fields including quantum information science, many-body physics, and computer science. The field has developed rapidly in the last several years, with major milestones marking the first glimpses...

2/14/24 AMO/QI seminar Dr. Kevin Singh University of Chicago

Wednesday, February 14, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring Dr. Kevin Singh from the University of Chicago. He will be giving a talk titled, A dual-apecies Rydberg array

Abstract:
Rydberg atom arrays are a leading platform for quantum information science. Such arrays comprise hundreds of long-lived qubits that are used for highly coherent analog quantum simulation and digital quantum computation. Advanced quantum protocols such as quantum error correction, however, require...

11/29/23 AMO/QI Qual Club hosted by Prof. Alp Sipahigil

Wednesday, November 29, 2023 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

The AMO Qual Club is meant for our early-career graduate students who are learning broadly about AMO physics in preparation for their qualifying examination. This event is for graduate students, and in an effort to keep the gatherings more informal and less stressful, we ask professors, postdocs, undergraduate students, and other researchers not to join us for this meeting.

11/20/23 AMO/QI Seminar Dr. Lincoln Carr, Colorado School of Mines

Monday, November 20, 2023 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar, on a special day, MONDAY Nov. 20 due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Our speaker will be Dr. Lincoln Carr from the Colorado School of Mines. His talk is titled, Entangled quantum cellular automata, physical complexity, and Goldilocks rules

Abstract:
Cellular automata are interacting classical...

01/24/24 AMO/QI seminar Ken Brown Duke Quantum Center

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 11 am - 12 pm 375 Physics North

Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring Dr. Kenneth Brown from the Duke Quantum Center. He will give a talk titled: Simulating a conical intersection with a trapped ion quantum computer

Abstract:
Conical intersections often control the reaction products of photochemical processes and occur when two electronic potential energy surfaces intersect. Theory predicts that the conical intersection will result in a geometric phase for a wavepacket on the ground potential energy surface, and...