MRI: Acquisition of a Phase Stabilized Optical Frequency Comb for Precision Metrology, Quantum Sensing, Information Processing, and Novel Spectroscopy

This award from the National Scientific Foundation Major Research Instrumentation program supports the acquisition of a phase stabilized optical frequency comb by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The optical frequency comb (OFC) enables a broad range of research activities in the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Electric engineering, and Geoscience.

The instrument will expand research capabilities and ignite collaboration between 15 faculty at UNLV and roughly 50 of their associated students and postdocs. The equipment will be a cornerstone toward building a research center for exploring new methods and technologies in quantum sensing and information processing, connecting expertise in AMO physics, condensed matter physics, physical chemistry, electric engineering, and geoscience.

This instrument will enable investigations of fundamental questions in science and engineering, advance the training of the diverse graduate and undergraduate STEM students at UNLV, and increase the skilled workforce available in the Southern Nevada area and the desert Southwest. The requested OFC will be the first advanced light source facility with extreme coherence and broad bandwidth in Nevada.

Thus, installation of the requested instrument within a UNLV research core will enhance the capabilities of Southern Nevada economic development in quantum science, novel materials, and astrophysical and geological explorations. This project is jointly funded by the MPS (Mathematical and Physical Sciences) Directorate, the Physics (PHY) Division, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Office of Integrative Activities (OIA).

The OFC is the newest generation of light sources that combines accurate phase information (approximately 1 part per 10^20) in the frequency-domain and ultrafast temporal information (femtoseconds) in the time-domain simultaneously. It has been used as a precision optical frequency synthesizer to explore new phenomena in fundamental science and is a crucial component in the world's most precise atomic clock (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2005).

Besides exhibiting an ultrabroad spectroscopic coverage and narrow linewidth, the OFC revolutionizes molecular spectroscopy with unprecedented speed and sensitivity, having already enabled successful applications in physics, chemistry, and environmental science. The OFC at UNLV will enable the following detailed studies: (1) development of a new generation of quantum sensors facilitating exploration of new physics beyond the Standard Model; (2) investigations of quantum computation platforms (photon, ion, superconducting circuit) and construction of a quantum network between them; (3) utilization and extension of novel asynchronous sampling pump-probe spectroscopy by dual-OFC in various studies in condensed matter physics and chemistry, such as probing driven topological phases in 2D systems and ultrafast photochemistry under high pressure; (4) study of novel synthesized materials, such as room-temperature superconductors (RTSC) by efficient nonlinear spectroscopy; (5) exploration of interstellar chemistry by performing broadband, high-resolution spectroscopy of cold molecules and probing ion-radical cold collisions; (6) study of radiochemistry by high resolution spectroscopy of molecules containing heavy elements; and (7) development of new technology for determining elemental abundances in solid rock samples.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.