Claire Thomas

Claire Thomas

PhD Candidate

Office: 301A Le Conte
Phone: (510) 642-9577
Email: clairekthomas at berkeley dot edu

Lab: Optical Lattices
Lab room: B171 Birge
Lab phone: (510) 643-0543

I began working with the Stamper-Kurn group in September 2010, supported by the DOE graduate research fellowship, and advanced to candidacy in April 2013. I have spent that time in E5, where we study the physics of frustrated and correlated many body systems. We have recently realized a two-dimensional tunable optical superlattice with Rb-87 atoms. With this lattice we can create a kagome structure, which is exciting because it offers the opportunity to explore both spin and momentum frustration. Materials with this lattice structure have been studied extensively in solid-state physics, but kagome magnets suffer from disorder that complicates the interpretation of experimental results. Our cold atom lattice provides new opportunities to explore the properties of this interesting lattice geometry in a highly controlled environment.

I have also worked on a project called Research: The Foundation for Innovation. Please check it out at http://whymyresearch.blogspot.com/ and submit a video to youtube with tag #whymyresearch if you'd like to help. Your video should educate a public audience about how awesome science is, and why it is in the best interest of the country to continue funding your research, or research in your field.

Publications

• Ultracold Atoms in a Tunable Optical Kagome Lattice. Gyu-Boong Jo, Jennie Guzman, Claire K. Thomas, Pavan Hosur, Ashvin Vishwanath, Dan M. Stamper-Kurn. (2012)
• Long timescale dynamics of spin textures in a degenerate F=1 Rb-87 spinor Bose gas. J. Guzman, G.-B. Jo, A. N. Wenz, K. W. Murch, C. K. Thomas, D. M. Stamper-Kurn. (2011)

Curriculum Vitae
For a description of my research and experience, please see my CV.