Faculty Spotlight
Shuo Sun: Assistant Professor of Physics, JILA Associate Fellow
Research interests
Shuo Sun’s research studies light-matter interactions at the quantum limit where single photons can interact with single atoms. The strong atom-photon interactions lead to two important applications in quantum information science and technology. First, they allow a single atom to mediate nonlinear interactions between optical photons or to generate entangled-photon clusters, which are critical capabilities for optical quantum information processing. Second, they allow optical photons to mediate interactions and entanglement between remote atoms to form quantum networks and distributed quantum computers.
The Sun group at JILA studies both applications with different atom-photon interaction platforms. Remarkably, they employ solid-state artificial atoms made of nanocrystals or atomic defects and impurities instead of trapped atoms. These artificial atoms are naturally embedded inside a semiconductor crystal, in which one can make electromagnetic, mechanic, and optical devices to tailor and control the electronic wavefunctions as well as to couple them with quantum circuits.
Education
Sun received a Bachelor of Optics at Zhejiang University in China. He completed a Master and Ph.D. of Electrical Engineering at University of Maryland, College Park. After completing his degrees, he was a postdoctoral researcher and a physical science research scientist at Stanford University, working with Professor Jelena Vuckovic. In August 2020 he joined JILA as an assistant professor of physics and JILA Associate Fellow.
Quotable and notable
Since driving from Maryland to Stanford, Sun has enjoyed driving and road trips. He also enjoys hiking and skiing, and is a premier league soccer fan.
Shuo Sun