The first quantum revolution yielded lasers and transistors more than half a century ago. These days, a second quantum revolution is unraveling, yielding new quantum-enhanced technologies for information processing, communications and sensing. The Hosten group is interested in developing new protocols and techniques in the sensing branch of these developments using cold atoms and light.

Onur Hosten is an experimental atomic and optical physicist. His group develops innovative techniques to control the quantum properties of atomic and optical systems. The experimental platform is many-atom cavity-quantum-electrodynamics (cQED), where large ensembles of atoms are laser cooled and trapped inside of an optical cavity and made to interact strongly with light resonating inside the cavity. The focus of the Hosten group is investigating the concepts of quantum entanglement, quantum measurement, and light-assisted atomic interactions to develop new sensing techniques, e.g., for force or acceleration sensing, or making ultra-precise clocks. In the long term, Hosten group is interested in applying the precision sensors they develop to explore challenging experimental questions such as the precise interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity, or the nature of dark matter.