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.
Researcher's guide to quantum computing hardware — DiVincenzo criteria, NISQ era context, and a detailed platform comparison: superconducting qubits, ion traps, photonics, neutral atoms, topological qubits. Companies, metrics, and neutral atom spotlight.
Interactive guide to laser cooling from hot clouds to the quantum ground state. Simulate Doppler cooling forces, sideband cooling phonon evolution, trap frequency calculations, and heating rates — with adjustable atom species, detuning, saturation, and trap parameters.
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 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 2025 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.