Welcome to Wes Campbell's Reseach Group at UCLA Physics & Astronomy

Our research uses ultra-cold atoms and molecules to learn about the physical processes that permeate our world.

We are specifically focused on the physics of quantum information, which includes advanced sensing, simulation, and computing applications.

We use gas and liquid phase atoms and molecules as tiny computers to perform tasks that cannot be simulated on classical computers. Our approach is to focus on novel species and novel ways to control them to leverage the built-in "quantumness" of these molecules for higher performance in these applications.

Latest News

Amanda Younes named Optica Women Scholar

April 3, 2023: Optica (formerly OSA) has announced the 20 Optica Women Scholars for 2023, and undergraduate Amanda Youness is among the winners. Congratulations, Amanda!



A closer look at scattering

March 17, 2023: Qubits in trapped ion quantum processors are often manipulated using high-power, off-resonant laser light to drive what is known as a stimulated Raman transition. However, spontaneous photon scattering from this laser light can corrupt the information in the processor, and it is important to understand what the ultimate limits of fidelity with such lasers is. We have re-examined some of the assumptions used in previous work on this topic and found that a more-accurate model can be used to show that there is no fundamental limit from spontaneous Raman scattering during laser-driven gates. This result, which was recently published, is good news for the future of the platform.



Hands-on quantum science for high school students

March 6, 2023: We use Paul traps to levitate individual ions in quantum processors to isolate them from their room-temperature environment. An analogous system can be operated at 60 Hz in air to trap charged dust particles, and was just demonstrated by our student collaborator, Abraham Berke, from Coronado High School in Coronado, CA. The green line (indicated by an arrow) in the image shows the particle's trajectory as it oscillates back and forth through a hole in an annular electrode. Congratulations, Abraham -- Admiral Ackbar would approve of the trap you designed and built!



Strontium phenoxide optical cycling

Dec 7, 2022: Organic alkaline-earth-metal oxides have been identified as promising species for quantum information and precision measurement applications that require repeated spontaneous photon scattering. In parallel with closely-related work by the Doyle group investigating CaOPh, we have taken a high-resolution, continuous-wave laser absorption spectrum and shown that the vibrational branching fractions in these speceis are high enough for some of these applications. This work recently appeared in JPC Lett.