Campbell Elected Optica Fellow for Pioneering Work on Atomtronics

JQI Fellow Gretchen Campbell has been elected a 2027 fellow of Optica. She is one of 116 researchers receiving the honor this year.

“I am honored to be elected a fellow of Optica and grateful to be recognized alongside so many researchers whose work has shaped our understanding of quantum systems,” says Campbell.

Optica fellowships acknowledge accomplishments and contributions within the community of researchers who study light and its applications. Campbell, who is also the Associate Vice President for Quantum Research and Education at UMD, was nominated for her work “pioneering the field of ‘atomtronics,’ where light creates circuits with atoms as analogs to electrons in electronics.” No more than 10% of Optica members may be honored as fellows.

Campbell leads an experimental research group that uses ultracold clouds of atoms to study the novel quantum phenomena that emerge when many particles come together and interact. The group’s experiments span topics from the behaviors of atoms combined into superfluids, which flow without friction, to simulations investigating the underlying physics of the universe as a whole.

In Campbell’s atomtronics research, she and her colleagues perform experiments in which they cool atoms to form a superfluid that they shape into a ring. As a superfluid, the atoms behave as a coordinated quantum object, which allows them to buck the normal rules of friction. In the experiments, the researchers use laser light both as a mold to form the superfluid into a ring and as a sort of spoon to stir the superfluid. Using lasers, they can direct the atoms to move in particular ways. 

The resulting streams of superfluid atoms resemble the flow of electrons in superconducting currents, which are used in devices like MRI machines, but the atoms have different properties from electrons, which provides unique opportunities both for research and the development of new technologies. The experiments performed by Campbell and her colleagues help them probe the underlying microscopic behaviors that produce the unique behaviors of superfluids, and she hopes that the understanding they develop will eventually let them implement atomtronics in practical devices, like new designs of sensors or gyroscopes that can aid in navigation.

“Atomtronics gives us a way to explore how collective quantum behavior can be controlled and applied,” Campbell says. “By creating circuits from ultracold atoms, we’re learning how quantum systems move, interact, and respond. We’re still exploring fundamental science, but with a goal to understand how these systems work and eventually use their unique quantum properties in practical devices.”

Campbell’s work on atomtronics has previously been acknowledged by other honors, such as the APS Maria Goeppert-Mayer award. Additionally, she has received numerous accolades, including being named a Fellow of the American Physical Society and receiving the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, the Arthur Flemming Award that honors outstanding federal employees and the Young Scientist Prize from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.

Story by Bailey Bedford