Efforts in our research group are presently focused on single-atom detection in order to facilitate the detection of neutrinoless double-beta decay, as part of the EXO collaboration.

Our research group has been exploring and utilizing the interaction between coherent optical radiation and neutral atoms. The techniques used and developed in the research pursued by the group push the cutting edge of the current understanding in quantum mechanics and materials science.

Our major research effort is in the area of high precision spectroscopy of excited states of atoms and molecules. We use microwave resonance techniques to study fast beams of atoms and molecules, prepared and detected in excited states by lasers.

The research in our group is focused on the implementation of a new non-evaporative cooling technique which will be used to cool atoms into a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) both faster and with fewer losses than other methods. With this new technique, BECs will be efficiently created in controllably-shaped optical traps to study the behavior of these quantum fluids as a function of confinement geometry.

LIDAR is similar to RADAR, using electromagnetic waves in the visible or near-visible spectrum to remotely investigate properties of a medium. CSU LIDAR is a Na fluorescence Lidar based on innovations developed at CSU, which can be used to determine Na density, temperature, zonal wind and meridional wind in the mesopause region (80-105 km) of the atmosphere both day and night for atmospheric wave and global change studies.