Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) Physics

What is Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics?

Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) physics is the study of light-matter and matter-matter interaction ranging from the scale of atoms, molecules, and photons to macroscopic devices.

What are we doing in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics at Illinois?

Here at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, we are studying a wide range of topics in AMO. Researchers work on ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices; cold molecules; Rydberg atoms; atom arrays in optical tweezers; trapped ions; atom-like emitters in solids, single, entangled, and hyper-entangled photons; optical atomic clocks; quantum memory; optical sensing of materials; human vision; and circuit quantum electrodynamics. We use these platforms to explore fundamental physics such as localization in disordered systems, many-body quantum dynamics, and topological order. We also use these tools for applications including quantum transduction, quantum information processing, quantum networking, and quantum sensing. The AMO faculty are members of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST).