Interactive simulators, spectroscopic references, lab calculators, and technique guides for atomic, molecular, and optical physics — curated from real lab experience in optical tweezers and ultracold atoms.
From spectroscopic data to interactive cooling simulators — each tool is built around real physics and real lab workflows.
Comprehensive spectroscopic data for 15 laser-coolable atoms — alkali, alkaline-earth, and magnetic species. Doppler temperatures, linewidths, nuclear spins, hyperfine splittings, data sheet links, and leading US research groups organized by topic.
Practical instrumentation guide for ultracold-atom and optical-tweezer experiments. Covers Gaussian beam optics, AC Stark shift, fluorescence imaging, PDH locking, magnetic coil design, thermometry, and Doppler cooling — drawn from PhD thesis Chapter 6.
Quantum defect theory for any alkali Rydberg state: effective quantum number, binding energy, orbital radius, and radiative lifetime. Interactive blockade radius calculator — find Rb for any species, state, and Rabi frequency.
Monte Carlo thermometry simulator for optical tweezer experiments. Measure atom temperature by simulating recapture probability vs. free-flight time, with dynamic polarizability calculations (D1 + D2), adjustable trap parameters, and fitted temperature output.
Quick-reference calculators for everyday AMO experiments: Gaussian beam optics, mW ↔ dBm power conversion, recoil energy, Doppler shift, Zeeman shift, de Broglie wavelength, saturation intensity, trap frequency, and cavity FSR/finesse.
Calculator and reference for angular momentum coupling coefficients ⟨j₁m₁; j₂m₂ | JM⟩. Pure JavaScript Racah formula with exact symbolic output (fractions and square roots), half-integer support, Wigner-Eckart theorem, selection rules, and common coupling tables.
Tutorial on the three main frequency stabilization techniques used in AMO: saturated-absorption spectroscopy (SAS), beat-note (offset) locking with PLL, and Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) cavity locking. Atom database, spacer materials, Doppler FWHM calculator.
Visualize and build Zernike wavefront modes up to radial order n = 6 (OSA/ANSI). Interactive 2D heatmaps and arbitrary wavefront superposition for SLM phase engineering, Laguerre-Gaussian beam generation, orbital angular momentum (OAM), and PSF shaping.
Interactive Stokes polarimetry simulator — visualize any polarization state on the Poincaré sphere, simulate the rotating-QWP measurement (Schaefer 2007), extract Stokes parameters via Fourier analysis, and compare HWP vs QWP methods. Includes E-field animation, Mueller matrices, and Jones calculus reference.
Single-atom fluorescence detection calculator for optical tweezer experiments — photon scattering rate on D2 lines, collection efficiency via NA and camera QE, full noise budget (shot noise, background, dark counts, read noise), SNR vs exposure time chart, and detection fidelity estimate for EMCCD or sCMOS cameras.
Rydberg two-qubit gate error budget — quantify contributions from spontaneous emission, Doppler dephasing, laser phase noise, finite blockade leakage, SPAM, atom loss, magnetic field noise, and Rabi inhomogeneity. Live bar chart of error fractions, total fidelity estimate, and comparison to state-of-the-art (Evered 2023: 99.5%).
Magneto-optical trap and magnetic trap calculator — damping coefficient, spring constant, MOT trap frequency and capture velocity from laser parameters; Ioffe-Pritchard trap frequencies (ω_r, ω_z), trap depth, and evaporation parameter η from coil field parameters. Includes V(r) trap profile chart and Majorana loss rate estimate.
Time-of-flight temperature calculator for ultracold atom experiments — ballistic cloud expansion σ²(t) = σ₀² + (k_BT/m)t², linear fit tool to extract T from multiple (t, σ) data points, de Broglie wavelength, phase-space density, and comparison to Doppler and recoil temperature limits. Supports Rb, Cs, Li, Na, K.
A researcher's guide to the commercial and academic quantum computing ecosystem — hardware platforms, company landscape, and where neutral-atom approaches fit in.
Interactive visualizations of core quantum mechanics — from single qubits on the Bloch sphere to Rydberg blockade and decoherence. No prior quantum background required.
Three recommended learning tracks depending on your background and goals.
Saumitra Phatak is a Physics PhD student at Purdue University, working in the Hood Lab on ultracold atoms and quantum computing using optical tweezers. He has trapped and cooled single lithium and cesium atoms to within microkelvin of absolute zero.
AMO Career grew out of the tools, references, and calculators that proved most useful during his PhD — and from the desire to make AMO physics more accessible to students joining the field. The content is drawn directly from his 2026 PhD thesis "Cooling Lithium and Cesium Single Atoms in Optical Tweezers".
He also writes about the experience of doing science at his blog, curious96.com.
Trapped and cooled single ⁶Li and ¹³³Cs atoms in optical tweezers at Purdue's Hood Lab, working toward Li-Cs molecule formation.
"Cooling Lithium and Cesium Single Atoms in Optical Tweezers" — instrumentation guide (Ch. 6) and QC platform landscape (Ch. 8) form the backbone of this site.
Research on Rydberg-mediated entanglement and two-qubit gates using ultracold atoms in reconfigurable tweezer arrays.
Sub-Doppler sideband cooling of single atoms to near-zero motional quantum number — the physics behind the Cooling Simulator and Release-Recapture tools.