Researchers at JILA and Harvard used Floquet engineering to control interactions between ultracold potassium-rubidium molecules, observing two-axis twisting dynamics that can generate entangled states for advanced quantum sensing.

This method manipulates the molecules’ spin states, offering insights into magnetic systems and many-body phenomena.
Exploring Quantum Phenomena With Spins

The interactions between quantum spins underlie some of the universe’s most interesting phenomena, such as superconductors and magnets. However, physicists have difficulty engineering controllable systems in the lab that replicate these interactions.

Now, in a recently published Nature paper, JILA and NIST Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder Physics Professor Jun Ye and his team, along with collaborators in Mikhail Lukin’s group at Harvard University, used periodic microwave pulses in a process known as Floquet engineering, to tune interactions between ultracold potassium-rubidium molecules in a system appropriate for studying fundamental magnetic systems. Moreover, the researchers observed two-axis twisting dynamics within their system, which can generate entangled states for enhanced quantum sensing in the future.

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