The Quantum Institute: Meet the Scientists

The Los Alamos quantum information science and technology research activities are interdisciplinary. Meet just a few of the Laboratory's many notable quantum researchers who are recognized nationally and internationally for their leadership in both theoretical and experimental areas.

Dana Berkeland works in the Physics Division studying the ways in which atomic traps can be used as tools for understanding quantum mechanical systems. Because these traps tightly confine single ions almost indefinitely, Berkeland is using the traps to test whether the result of measurement of a quantum mechanical system in a superposition of states is unpredictable. The results of this test are important to interpreting the nature of information in a quantum system.

Malcolm Boshier is part of a team attempting to harness atoms provided by a Bose-Einstein condensate to build a waveguide atom interferometer. Such a device would be extremely sensitive to any interaction that affects the energies of atoms and could be miniaturized to dimensions of just a few millimeters, which might make possible a new generation of ultra-sensitive miniature sensors. He was recently recruited to the Physics Division from The University of Sussex, U.K.

Marilyn Hawley of the Materials Science and Technology Division is exploring a novel "bottom-up" fabrication approach to using a scanning tunneling microscope to create a solid-state, silicon-based, quantum computer. The approach involves the fabrication of atoms in a spin array, which could be the functional basis of a quantum computer.

Richard Hughes is a quantum information physicist who works on quantum cryptography and with the quantum computing teams at the Laboratory. A member of the Laboratory's Physics Division, he is also currently the chair of two panels of eminent scientists who are engaged in creating national roadmaps to help guide the future development of those two fields. He also serves as the Scientific Director of the Quantum Institute.

Daniel James of the Theoretical Division investigates theories underlying quantum computing technologies such as ion traps. He also studies the theory behind optical technology such as single-photon sources and detectors and is interested in optical measurement and readout of quantum computing in the solid state.

Juan Pablo Paz is a theorist who works on the quantum algorithms used for developing and studying physics simulations on physical systems. Assigned to the Laboratory's Theoretical Division, he is also involved in the study of decoherence and the role of decoherence in the context of how classical laws emerge from the quantum realm in what is called the quantum-classical transition. He was recently recruited from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Toni Taylor is a physicist working in the Laboratory's Materials Science and Technology Division. Taylor is interested in the ways in which ultrafast optical pulses of light might be used to selectively excite such complex materials systems as nonlinear optical crystals, semiconductor quantum dots, and bulk materials, in order to prepare and manipulate specific electronic and photonic quantum states which may be of critical importance for building future quantum electronic and photonic devices.

David Vieira is a nuclear chemist in the Chemistry Division who conducts fundamental atomic and nuclear physics experiments involving trapped radioactive atoms, ultrasensitive detection, and quantum information and control. He also carries out investigations into fundamental symmetries, radioactive beams, and neutron-induced cross section measurements.

Xinxin Zhao of the Chemistry Division conducts research on novel atom cooling and trapping techniques. Using recent advances in laser cooling and atom trapping, Zhao's team at Los Alamos has adapted cooling and trapping techniques to make measurements of parity violation in radioactive atoms as a means to test the Standard Model of Electroweak interactions.

Wojciech Zurek of the Theoretical Division is known internationally for his seminal contributions to theory of decoherence. His interests also include physics of information, quantum error correction, the transition from quantum to classical, as well as other subjects such as cosmology and dynamics of phase transformations. In the photo, Zurek (left), Raymond Laflamme, (center) University of Waterloo, Canada, and Emmanuel (Manny) Knill (right) are shown discussing resilient quantum computation; a strategy was proposed by the three collaborators to enable error-free quantum computations using quantum gates. Knill is a mathematician in the Computer and Computational Sciences Division and works on the theory and practice of quantum information processing.

Quantum Information: Science for a new century

The Quantum Institute: An institute to foster interdisciplinary research

The Quantum Institute's National Security Mission at Los Alamos

Brochure: "The Quantum Institute at Los Alamos National Laboratory" (PDF 3.5MB)