The Killian Research Group

The Ultracold Atoms and Plasmas Group studies ultracold neutral plasmas and ultracold atomic gases. Both experiments start with laser-cooled and trapped neutral strontium. Laser-cooling is a powerful technique for producing and trapping atoms at temperatures as low as one millionth of a degree above absolute zero. Under these exotic conditions, matter behaves in fundamentally different ways, and the exploration of this regime teaches us about the basic laws of nature and lays the foundation for powerful new technological advances.

Click here to listen to Prof. Killian talk about the research.

Our first publication on Rydberg-atom synthetic dimensions appears in Nature Communications (2022). Check it out here.

Watch Prof. Killian and Tom Langin talk about the recent results on laser cooling a neutral plasma, published in Science.

PRL Article, on "Creation of Rydberg Polarons in a Bose Gas" (2018) Watch Prof. Killian and Joe Whalen talk about this new class of polarons. Rice news article on Rydberg-atom synthetic dimensions	Science article on laser cooling of an ultracold neutral plasma (2019). Rice news article on ultracold simulators of super-dense stars. Physics Today article on Ultracold Neutral Plasmas(2010)