Charles D. Brown II
Assistant Professor of Physics
Charles D. Brown II has joined the Yale Department of Physics as an assistant professor of Physics, starting on January 1, 2023. Previously, Brown was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked with Dan Stamper-Kurn on experiments with ultracold atomic gasses trapped in optical lattices. Brown received his undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and his Ph.D. from Yale. As a graduate student in Jack Harris’ group at Wright Lab, Brown performed experiments with superfluid-helium-filled optical cavities and constructed and characterized a new experiment for studying magnetically levitated drops of superfluid helium in vacuum.
Professor Brown aims to study single-, few-, and many-body quantum physics by conducting quantum simulation experiments. Quantum simulations are realizations of complex quantum systems for the purpose of understanding their ordered phases and dynamics. His group traps ultracold atoms in optical lattice potentials (an ultracold atom quantum simulator), which is the spatially periodic potential the atoms experience in the intensity standing wave of several intersecting lasers. In doing so, the Brown group aims to learn about exotic order phases of ultracold bosons and fermions in optical lattices, how transport works in lattices with unusual geometry (e.g., a “lattice” that lacks translational symmetry), and what role topology plays in the quantum behavior of bosons and fermions in such unusual lattices.”