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To recognize World Quantum Day on April 14, organized by scientists around the world to raise awareness of the field, ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder Today talked with three graduate students about what the future holds for quantum physics and how quantum discoveries have already fueled the modern, digital age.

As World Quantum Day was celebrated by the scientific community, JILA honored their scientists and teams—around 75% of whom study quantum phenomena—and the discoveries that have helped make JILA a world leader in the field. The institute looks forward to what quantum may hold for our future.

The panel, titled "Women in Quantum: What Does It Take," featured researchers, engineers and physicists from ColdQuanta, Maybell Quantum, Quantinuum and Vescent. Together, they discussed the state of the industry and showcased the rich quantum ecosystem within Colorado.

JILA researchers recently demonstrated that when an array of multi-level atoms is placed in an optical cavity, the atoms can all cooperate and collectively suppress their emission of light. This "quantum dark state" is inherently entangled, a property that makes it even more attractive for future quantum technologies.

The group from ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉäbit included Philip Makotyn, executive director of ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉäbit, and Joshua Combes, associate professor of photonics and quantum engineering at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder. The visit symbolized an important step in beginning discussions between the Air Force Academy and the Colorado quantum ecosystem.

¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder’s high-impact physics research and education will receive additional funding as part of the recently passed $1.5T federal omnibus bill. The funding will pay for much-needed research equipment in the JILA instrument and electronics shops, as well as the Keck Metrology and Clean Room Core Facility.

JILA and NIST Fellow Ralph Jimenez and his team have reported a new experimental setup to search for the cause of a mysterious fluorescent signal that appears to be from entangled photon excitation. The results suggest that hot-band absorption (HBA) by the molecules could be the potential culprit.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis and delegates from Finland recently signed an MOU to create collaborative partnership opportunities focused on foreign direct investment and research and development projects in quantum science, as well as company expansion opportunities and exchanges.

The ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉäbit Quantum Initiative today welcomed the first four strategic industry allies to formally join as ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉäbit Innovation Partners: Atom Computing, ColdQuanta, Meadowlark Optics and SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

New experiments at JILA, recently published in Nature, allow physicists to study time dilation at the smallest scale ever, suggesting how to make atomic clocks 50 times more precise than today’s best designs—and offering a route to perhaps revealing how relativity and gravity interact with quantum mechanics.