Experiments that cool, trap, and control atoms, ions, and molecules offer a unique testbed for a wide variety of applications, ranging from quantum simulation of many-body physics to quantum computation, sensing, and chemistry. Our goal is to build an ultra-high vacuum setup where a hybrid atom-ion system can be controlled and studied using electric, magnetic, and optical fields.

Sensing Interactions in atomic quantum systems

Interacting (many-body) systems are ubiquitous in Nature, yet the universality in their building blocks enables us to simulate and study them using scale models in the laboratory. Trapped ions and ultracold neutral quantum gases are among the key platforms that facilitate this analog quantum simulation. However, to fully benefit from combining these fields and creating a hybrid ion-atom system, it is essential to understand, characterize, and control the interactions between the atoms and ions. Our experiments focus on this exploration and on using this knowledge to enhance our understanding of quantum chemistry, cold molecules, impurity physics, and quantum simulation of many-body systems. Hybrid ion-atom systems benefit both from the spatial localization and addressability of the ions as well as the long coherence times and scalability of the atoms.