MIT physicists have unveiled a new technique that could significantly improve the precision and stability of next-generation optical atomic clocks, devices that underpin everything from mobile transactions to navigation apps. In a recent media statement, the MIT team explained: “Every time you check the time on your phone, make an online transaction, or use a navigation app, you are depending on the precision of atomic clocks. An atomic clock keeps time by relying on the ‘ticks’ of atoms as they naturally oscillate at rock-steady frequencies.”

Current atomic clocks rely on cesium atoms tracked with lasers at microwave frequencies, but scientists are advancing to clocks based on faster-ticking atoms like ytterbium, which can be tracked with lasers at higher, optical frequencies and discern intervals up to 100 trillion times per second.

A research group at MIT, led by Vladan Vuletić, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics, detailed that their newly developed method harnesses a laser-induced “global phase” in ytterbium atoms and boosts this effect using quantum amplification. Vuletić stated, “We think our method can help make these clocks transportable and deployable to where they’re needed.” The approach, called global phase spectroscopy, doubles the precision of an optical atomic clock, enabling it to resolve twice as many ticks per second compared to standard setups, and promises further gains with increasing atom counts.

The technique could pave the way for portable optical atomic clocks able to measure all manner of phenomena in various locations. Vuletić summarized the broader scientific ambitions: “With these clocks, people are trying to detect dark matter and dark energy, and test whether there really are just four fundamental forces, and even to see if these clocks can predict earthquakes.”

The MIT team has previously demonstrated improved clock precision by quantumly entangling hundreds of ytterbium atoms and using time reversal tricks to amplify their signals. Their latest advance applies these methods to much faster optical frequencies, where stabilizing the clock laser has always been a major challenge. “When you have atoms that tick 100 trillion times per second, that’s 10,000 times faster than the frequency of microwaves,” said Vuletić in the statement. Their experiments revealed a surprisingly useful “global phase” information about the laser frequency, previously thought irrelevant, unlocking the potential for even greater accuracy.

The research, led by Vuletić and joined by Leon Zaporski, Qi Liu, Gustavo Velez, Matthew Radzihovsky, Zeyang Li, Simone Colombo, and Edwin Pedrozo-Peñafiel of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, was published in Nature. They believe the technical benefits of the new method will make atomic clocks easier to run and enable stable, transportable clocks fit for future scientific exploration, including earthquake prediction, fundamental physics, and global time standards.

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their landmark discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit, an innovation that laid the foundation for today’s quantum computing revolution.

Announcing the prize, Olle Eriksson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said, “It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology.”

The Committee described their discovery as a “turning point in understanding how quantum mechanics manifests at the macroscopic scale,” bridging the gap between classical electronics and quantum physics.

John Clarke: The SQUID Pioneer

British-born John Clarke, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, is celebrated for his pioneering work on Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) — ultra-sensitive detectors of magnetic flux. His career has been marked by contributions that span superconductivity, quantum amplifiers, and precision measurements.

Clarke’s experiments in the early 1980s provided the first clear evidence of quantum behaviour in electrical circuits — showing that entire electrical systems, not just atoms or photons, can obey the strange laws of quantum mechanics.

A Fellow of the Royal Society, Clarke has been honoured with numerous awards including the Comstock Prize (1999) and the Hughes Medal (2004).

Michel H. Devoret: Architect of Quantum Circuits

French physicist Michel H. Devoret, now the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics at Yale University, has been one of the intellectual architects of quantronics — the study of quantum phenomena in electrical circuits.

After earning his PhD at the University of Paris-Sud and completing a postdoctoral fellowship under Clarke at Berkeley, Devoret helped establish the field of circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED), which underpins the design of modern superconducting qubits.

His group’s innovations — from the single-electron pump to the fluxonium qubit — have set performance benchmarks in quantum coherence and control. Devoret is also a recipient of the Fritz London Memorial Prize (2014) and the John Stewart Bell Prize, and is a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

John M. Martinis: Building the Quantum Processor

American physicist John M. Martinis, who completed his PhD at UC Berkeley under Clarke’s supervision, translated these quantum principles into the hardware era. His experiments demonstrated energy level quantisation in Josephson junctions, one of the key results now honoured by the Nobel Committee.

Martinis later led Google’s Quantum AI lab, where his team in 2019 achieved the world’s first demonstration of quantum supremacy — showing a superconducting processor outperforming the fastest classical supercomputer on a specific task.

A former professor at UC Santa Barbara, Martinis continues to be a leading voice in quantum computing research and technology development.

A Legacy of Quantum Insight

Together, the trio’s discovery, once seen as a niche curiosity in superconducting circuits, has become the cornerstone of the global quantum revolution. Their experiments proved that macroscopic electrical systems can display quantised energy states and tunnel between them, much like subatomic particles.

Their work, as the Nobel citation puts it, “opened a new window into the quantum behaviour of engineered systems, enabling technologies that are redefining computation, communication, and sensing.”

In an inventive leap that could open up new frontiers in neuroscience, drug development, and medical research, scientists in India have designed their own version of a precision laboratory tool known as the dual-trap optical tweezers system. By creating a homegrown solution to manipulate and measure forces on single molecules, the team brings world-class technology within reach of Indian researchers—potentially igniting a wave of scientific discoveries.

Optical tweezers, a Nobel Prize-winning invention from 2018, use focused beams of light to grab and move microscopic objects with extraordinary accuracy. The technique has become indispensable for measuring tiny forces and exploring the mechanics of DNA, proteins, living cells, and engineered nanomaterials. Yet, decades after their invention, conventional optical tweezers systems sometimes fall short for today’s most challenging experiments.

Researchers at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), an autonomous institute backed by India’s Department of Science and Technology in Bengaluru, have now introduced a smart upgrade that addresses long-standing pitfalls of dual-trap tweezers. Traditional setups rely on measuring the light that passes through particles trapped in two separate beams—a method prone to signal “cross-talk.” This makes simultaneous, independent measurement difficult, diminishing both accuracy and versatility.

The new system pioneers a confocal detection scheme. In a media statement, Md Arsalan Ashraf, a doctoral scholar at RRI, explained, “The unique optical trapping scheme utilizes laser light scattered back by the sample for detecting trapped particle position. This technique pushes past some of the long-standing constraints of dual-trap configurations and removes signal interference. The single-module design integrates effortlessly with standard microscopy frameworks,” he said.

The refinement doesn’t end there. The system ensures that detectors tracking tiny particles remain perfectly aligned, even when the optical traps themselves move. The result: two stable, reliable measurement channels, zero interference, and no need for complicated re-adjustment mid-experiment—a frequent headache with older systems.

Traditional dual-trap designs have required costly and complex add-ons, sometimes even hijacking the features of laboratory microscopes and making additional techniques, such as phase contrast or fluorescence imaging, hard to use. “This new single-module trapping and detection design makes high-precision force measurement studies of single molecules, probing of soft materials including biological samples, and micromanipulation of biological samples like cells much more convenient and cost-effective,” said Pramod A Pullarkat, lead principal investigator at RRI, in a statement.

By removing cross-talk and offering robust stability—whether traps are close together, displaced, or the environment changes—the RRI team’s approach is not only easier to use but far more adaptable. Its plug-and-play module fits onto standard microscopes without overhauling their basic structure.

From the intellectual property point of view, this design may be a game-changer. By cracking the persistent problem of signal interference with minimalist engineering, the new setup enhances measurement precision and reliability—essential advantages for researchers performing delicate biophysical experiments on everything from molecular motors to living cells.

With the essential building blocks in place, the RRI team is now exploring commercial avenues to produce and distribute their single-module, dual-trap optical tweezer system as an affordable add-on for existing microscopes. The innovation stands to put advanced single-molecule force spectroscopy, long limited to wealthier labs abroad, into the hands of scientists across India—and perhaps spark breakthroughs across the biomedical sciences.