OSE Seminar by Dr. Francisco Salces Carcoba on Sensing at the quantum limit with laser interferometers and atomic gases
Departmental News
Posted: September 15, 2025
Date: Thursday, September 18, 2025
Time: 12:30 PM to 1:45 PM
Location: PAIS, 2540 and Zoom
Speaker: Dr. Francisco Salces Carcoba; Department of Physics and Astronomy, UNM
Abstract:
In this seminar I will describe how laser interferometer and atomic sensors may approach and surpass their quantum noise limits via their classical susceptibilities and the influence of unwanted noise. I will then describe a new platform aimed at combining cold atomic ensembles with laser interferometers to dynamically modify the sensitivities of either light or matter based sensors. Finally, I will describe two applications where (1) custom tailored atomic ensembles enable adaptive response of future laser interferometer gravitational wave detectors and (2) a laser interferometer enables ultra wide dynamic range pressure sensing in ultra-high vacuum environments.
Biography:
Francisco Salces Carcoba got his physics BSc at the UASLP, the local public university of San Luis Potosi in Mexico where he is originally from. After obtaining his PhD in quantum simulation using degenerate Bose gases at the Joint Quantum Institute between NIST and the University of Maryland, he joined the LIGO laboratory at Caltech as the first Barish-Weiss postdoctoral fellow working on the development of next generation gravitational wave instrumentation. He is now an assistant professor at UNM, working on the development of practical quantum sensors based on cold atoms and laser interferometers.
