Jacob P. Covey

For More Information

• coveylab.com

Education

• Ph.D., Physics, University of Colorado-Boulder, 2017
• M.S., Physics, University of Colorado-Boulder, 2013
• B.S., Engineering Physics (Physics and Mathematics as additional majors), University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2011

Academic Positions

• Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Physics, August 2020 - Present
• Richard Chace Tolman Postdoctoral Scholar, California Institute of Technology, Physics, August 2017 - June 2020

Research Statement

Arrays of neutral atoms are quickly emerging as a scalable platform for quantum science. Recent breakthroughs have enabled the individual control of large numbers of neutral atoms through the use of reconfigurable optical tweezer arrays. More recently, this control has been extended to alkaline-earth(-like) atoms, which are employed in the most precise atomic clocks. Covey's research group will focus on arrays of neutral alkaline-earth(-like) atoms in optical tweezers. He is interested in a wide range of topics from fundamental physics to metrology to device engineering.

Research Interests

• Quantum Optics
• Atomic Physics
• Quantum Information Science

Books Authored or Co-Authored (Original Editions)

• J. P. Covey, Enhanced optical and electric manipulation of a quantum gas of KRb molecules, Springer Thesis, ISBN: 978-3-319-98107-9 (2018)

Chapters in Books

• J. P. Covey, S. A. Moses, D. S. Jin, and J. Ye, "Controlling Ultracold Chemical Reactions using Optical Lattices", chapter in Cold Chemistry: Molecular Scattering and Reactivity Near Absolute Zero, Royal Society of Chemistry, ISBN: 978-1-78262-597-1 (2017)

Selected Articles in Journals

• J. Choi, A. L. Shaw, I. S. Madjarov, X. Xie, J. P. Covey, J. S. Cotler, D. K. Mark, H.-Y. Huang, A. Kale, H. Pichler, F. G.S.L. Brandao, S. Choi, and M. Endres, “Preparing random states and benchmarking with many-body quantum chaos”, Nature 613, 468-473 (2023)
• L. Li, W. Huie, N. Chen, B. DeMarco, and J. P. Covey, “Active cancellation of servo-induced noise on stabilized lasers via feedforward”, Physical Review Applied 18, 064005 (2022)
• A. J. Sigillito, J. P. Covey, J. M. Fink, K. Petersson, and S. Preble, "Emerging qubit systems: Guest editorial", Applied Physics Letters 120, 190401 (2022)
• J. P. Covey, "Microwave-optical transducer efficiency boost", Nature Photonics 16, 262-264 (2022)
• J. P. Covey, "Atom arrays for superresolution imaging", Physics 15, 23 (2022)
• N. Chen, L. Li, W. Huie, M. Zhao, I. Vetter, C. H. Greene, and J. P. Covey, "Analyzing the Rydberg-based optical-metastable-ground architecture for 171Yb nuclear spins", Phys. Rev. A 105, 052438 (2022)
• J. Ang'ong'a, C. Huang, J. P. Covey, and B. Gadway, "Gray molasses cooling of 39K atoms in optical tweezers", Phys. Rev. Research 4, 013240 (2022)
• W. Huie, S. G. Menon, H. Bernien, and J. P. Covey, Multiplexed telecommunication-band quantum networking with atom arrays in optical cavities, Phys. Rev. Research 3, 043154 (2021)
• V. V. Albert, J. P. Covey, and J. Preskill, Robust Encoding of a Qubit in a Molecule, Phys. Rev. X 10, 031050 (2020)
• I. S. Madjarov*, J. P. Covey*, A. L. Shaw, J. Choi, A. Kale, A. Cooper, H. Pichler, V. Schkolnik, J. R. Williams, and M. Endres, (*equal contribution), High-fidelity entanglement and detection of alkaline-earth Rydberg atoms, Nature Physics 16, 857-861 (2020)
• N. Lauk, N. Sinclair, S. Barzanjeh, J. P. Covey, M. Saffman, M. Spiropulu, C. Simon, Perspectives on quantum transduction, Quantum Science and Technology 5, 020501 (2020)
• I. S. Madjarov, A. Cooper, A. L. Shaw, J. P. Covey, V. Schkolnik, T. H. Yoon, J. R. Williams, and M. Endres, An Atomic-Array Optical Clock with Single-Atom Readout, Phys. Rev. X 9, 041052 (2019)
• J. P. Covey, A. Sipahigil, and M. Saffman, Microwave-to-optical conversion via four-wave-mixing in a cold ytterbium ensemble, Phys. Rev. A 100, 012307 (2019)
• J. P. Covey, I. Madjarov, A. Cooper, and M. Endres, 2000-times repeated imaging of strontium atoms in clock-magic tweezer arrays, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 173201 (2019)
• J. P. Covey, A. Sipahigil, S. Szoke, N. Sinclair, M. Endres, and O. Painter, Telecom-Band Quantum Optics with Ytterbium Atoms and Silicon Nanophotonics, Phys. Rev. Applied 11, 034044 (2019)
• L. De Marco, G. Valtolina, K. Matsuda, W. Tobias, J. P. Covey, and J. Ye, A Fermi Degenerate Gas of Polar Molecules, Science 363, 6429 853-856 (2019)
• A. Cooper, J. P. Covey, I. Madjarov, S. G. Porsev, M. S. Safronova, and M. Endres, Alkaline-Earth Atoms in Optical Tweezers, Phys. Rev. X 8, 041055 (2018)
• J. P. Covey, L. De Marco, O. L. Acevedo, A. M. Rey, and J. Ye, An approach to spin-resolved molecular gas microscopy, New Journal of Physics 20, 043031 (2018)
• S. A. Moses, J. P. Covey, M. T. Miecnikowski, D. S. Jin, and J. Ye, New frontiers for quantum gases of polar molecules, Nature Physics 13, 1 13-20 (2017)
• J. P. Covey, S. A. Moses, M. Garttner, A. Safavi-Naini, M. T. Miecnikowski, Z. Fu, J. Schachenmayer, P. S. Julienne, A. M. Rey, D. S. Jin, and J. Ye, Doublon dynamics and polar molecule production in an optical lattice, Nature Communications 7, 11279 (2016)
• S. A. Moses, J. P. Covey, M. T. Miecnikowski, B. Yan, B. Gadway, J. Ye, and D. S. Jin, Creation of a low entropy quantum gas of polar molecules in an optical lattice, Science 350, 6261 (2015)
• K. R. A. Hazzard, B. Gadway, M. Foss-Feig, B. Yan, S. A. Moses, J. P. Covey, N. Yao, M. D. Lukin, J. Ye, D. S. Jin, and A. M. Rey, Many-body dynamics of dipolar molecules in an optical lattice, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 195302 (2014)
• B. Zhu, B. Gadway, M. Foss-Feig, J. Schachenmayer, M. L. Wall, K. R. A. Hazzard, B. Yan, S. A. Moses, J. P. Covey, D. S. Jin, J. Ye, M. Holland, and A. M. Rey, Suppressing the Loss of Ultracold Molecules Via the Continuous Quantum Zeno Effect, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 070404 (2014)
• B. Yan, S. A. Moses, B. Gadway, J. P. Covey, K. R. A. Hazzard, A. M. Rey, D. S. Jin, and J. Ye, Observation of dipolar spin-exchange interactions with lattice-confined polar molecules, Nature 501, 521-525 (2013)
• B. Neyenhuis, B. Yan, S. A. Moses, J. P. Covey, A. Chotia, A. Petrov, S. Kotochigova, J. Ye, and D. S. Jin, Anisotropic Polarizability of Ultracold Polar 40K87Rb Molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 230403 (2012)
• A. Chotia, B. Neyenhuis, S. A. Moses, B. Yan, J. P. Covey, M. Foss-Feig, A. M. Rey, D. S. Jin, and J. Ye, Long-lived dipolar molecules and Feshbach molecules in a 3D optical lattice, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 080405 (2012)

Patents

• M. Endres, A. Cooper, J. P. Covey, I. S. Madjarov, A. L. Shaw, T. H. Yoon, V. schkolnik, and J. R. Williams, "Controlling Alkaline Earth Atoms For Quantum Computing And Metrology Applications", US Patent No. 10,809,177 B2 (2020)

Honors

• Young Investigator Award, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) (2022)
• Young Investigator Award, Office of Naval Research (ONR) (2022)
• Springer PhD Thesis Award (2018)
• Richard Chace Tolman Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship, Caltech (2017)
• DoD National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship (2013)
• Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowship, UW-Madison (2010)

Research Honors

• Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) (2022)
• Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) (2022 )

Recent Courses Taught

• PHYS 211 - University Physics: Mechanics
• PHYS 212 - University Physics: Elec & Mag
• PHYS 213 - Univ Physics: Thermal Physics
• PHYS 214 - Univ Physics: Quantum Physics