Description: Uses EIT in an ultracold atomic medium (Bose-Einstein condensate) to dramatically reduce the group velocity of light pulses, halt them, and coherently store their quantum state as a collective atomic spin excitation before retrieval.
Bretenaker (former LuMIn director) works on laser physics and quantum optics: sub-shot-noise sensing with phase-sensitive-amplifier-generated entangled beams, spin-noise spectroscopy in atomic vapours, EIT slow light, and quantum-limited passive resonant (fiber/bulk) gyroscopes with Thales. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work represents the fundamental-light and quantum-limited-rotation-sensing side.
Goldfarb studies coherent effects in atomic vapours - EIT and slow light, spin-noise spectroscopy of spin-environment interaction, and EIT-based Rydberg-atom radio-frequency field sensing (electrometry) in warm cells. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work adds atomic-vapour electrometry and coherence spectroscopy.
Hau is renowned for slowing light to bicycle speed and then stopping and coherently storing optical pulses in a Bose-Einstein condensate via electromagnetically induced transparency; her current program extends this quantum-optics platform to couple light-driven photosynthetic proteins with engineered nanostructures, bridging fundamental photon physics and biophysics.
Kocharovskaya is a theorist (with supporting experiment) in coherent optics: EIT, lasing without inversion, and X-ray/gamma quantum optics using nuclear coherent control (Moessbauer nuclei) for ultra-narrowband photon storage and precision spectroscopy. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work provides coherent-control primitives relevant to precision sensing.