# Andrew Jayich

Andrew Jayich is an experimental atomic, molecular, and optical physicist at the [University of California, Santa Barbara](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-california-santa-barbara), known for using trapped atomic and molecular ions to test fundamental symmetries and to develop optical clocks and quantum information tools, and for receiving a 2025 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the Department of Energy.<sup>[1](https://science.osti.gov/About/Honors-and-Awards/PECASE/Winners-Since-1996)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://jayich.io/people/andrew-jayich)</sup> His research program centers on molecules containing radium, a short-lived radioactive nucleus, which are candidates for laboratory searches for violations of time-reversal symmetry.<sup>[3](https://news.ucsb.edu/2021/020334/rewarding-endeavor)</sup>

| Key facts | |
|---|---|
| Field | Experimental atomic, molecular, and optical physics (trapped ions) |
| Position | Associate professor of physics, UC Santa Barbara, since 2016<sup>[4](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)</sup> |
| Training | A.B. Physics, Harvard (2004); Ph.D. Physics, Yale (2012, advisor Jack Harris)<sup>[4](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://physics.yale.edu/people/andrew-jayich)</sup> |
| Signature result | Controlled synthesis and trapping of cold RaOH⁺ and RaOCH₃⁺ molecular ions, identified by optical mass spectrometry (2021); first radium-ion optical clock (2022)<sup>[6](https://news.ucsb.edu/2022/020538/high-risk-high-rewards)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://physics.yale.edu/news/andrew-jayich-phd12-jack-harris-awarded-nsf-career-award-and-grant-wm-keck-foundation)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[13](https://jayich.io/pdfs/papers/fan-2021-oms-radium-molecules.pdf)</sup> |
| Major award | PECASE, 2025, one of 55 DOE-funded recipients<sup>[1](https://science.osti.gov/About/Honors-and-Awards/PECASE/Winners-Since-1996)</sup> |
| Landmark publication | "Opportunities for fundamental physics research with radioactive molecules," *Reports on Progress in Physics* (2024)<sup>[8](https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/ad1e39)</sup> |

## Education and career

Jayich studied physics at Harvard University, completing his A.B. in 2004. As an undergraduate he worked in John Doyle's laboratory on creating a Bose-Einstein condensate via buffer gas and evaporative cooling.<sup>[4](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)</sup> He then moved to Yale University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2012 working with Jack Harris on optomechanics; as a graduate student he laser cooled an optomechanical system anchored to a 3He cryostat to close to its quantum ground state.<sup>[4](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://physics.yale.edu/people/andrew-jayich)</sup>

After a postdoctoral year at Caltech, he spent 2012 to 2016 at UCLA working with Wes Campbell, where the group demonstrated laser cooling and trapping of atoms on a two-photon transition using an optical frequency comb.<sup>[4](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://jayich.io/people/andrew-jayich)</sup> He joined the UC Santa Barbara physics faculty in 2016 and is now an associate professor.<sup>[4](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)</sup>

## Research: radioactive molecules for fundamental physics

**The core idea** of Jayich's laboratory is that molecules containing short-lived radioactive nuclei are unusually sensitive probes of physics beyond the standard model. In such molecules the unpaired nuclear and electronic structure amplifies the effects of symmetry-violating interactions, and molecular spectroscopy can therefore constrain quantities such as the electron's electric dipole moment, the tiny separation of electric charge along the electron's spin axis that a nonzero value would imply time-reversal (T) violation.<sup>[8](https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/ad1e39)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi8499)</sup>

Reading out the quantum state of a molecule with a radioactive nucleus is hard, and Jayich's approach is quantum logic spectroscopy: trap a single atom together with a single radioactive molecule, entangle the two particles, excite the molecule with a single photon, and detect the molecule's state using the co-trapped atom. The co-trapped atom then serves as a readout and control handle for a molecule that cannot be measured directly.<sup>[3](https://news.ucsb.edu/2021/020334/rewarding-endeavor)</sup>

The laboratory passed an early milestone in 2021, when it synthesized, trapped, and cooled radium molecules.<sup>[6](https://news.ucsb.edu/2022/020538/high-risk-high-rewards)</sup> The group's flagship target is the diatomic molecule RaH+, studied under an NSF CAREER award focused on rotational cooling of radioactive molecules.<sup>[6](https://news.ucsb.edu/2022/020538/high-risk-high-rewards)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://physics.yale.edu/news/andrew-jayich-phd12-jack-harris-awarded-nsf-career-award-and-grant-wm-keck-foundation)</sup> In a separate line of work on radium ions themselves, the group published in *Physical Review Letters* in February 2022 the first use of a radium ion to create an optical clock.<sup>[7](https://physics.yale.edu/news/andrew-jayich-phd12-jack-harris-awarded-nsf-career-award-and-grant-wm-keck-foundation)</sup>

In 2024 Jayich co-authored a review in *Reports on Progress in Physics* that lays out the field's scientific case: molecules with radioactive nuclei enable discoveries in fundamental symmetries, astrophysics, nuclear structure, and chemistry; recent advances in creating, cooling, and controlling complex molecules to the quantum level, combined with radioactive-species production at several facilities worldwide, make the field possible; the review describes the underlying atomic, molecular, nuclear, astrophysical, and chemical groundwork, the producing facilities, and an outlook.<sup>[8](https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/ad1e39)</sup> The retrieved abstract names no individual facilities, so specific site attributions cannot be confirmed from the sources here.

## Research: ion traps and quantum technology

The precision work above depends on ion traps, the electrode structures that hold charged particles in vacuum. [Quantum information](https://www.edgepedia.org/quantum-information) experiments usually use photolithographically fabricated (on-chip) traps, which scale well, while precision-measurement, clock, and mass-spectrometry work typically uses traditionally machined macroscopic three-dimensional Paul traps, which achieve strong confinement but do not scale. Photolithography struggles to produce the complex 3D electrode shapes that give machined traps their optimal confinement.<sup>[10](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09474-1)</sup>

A 2025 *Nature* paper from the collaboration demonstrated a way out: high-resolution 3D printing based on two-photon polymerization (laser 3D-printing that cures resin only where two photons meet), which can fabricate large arrays of miniaturized 3D traps. Trapping calcium ions, the team achieved radial trap frequencies from 2 MHz to 24 MHz, and the tight confinement eased cooling requirements enough to implement high-quality [Rabi oscillations](https://www.edgepedia.org/rabi-oscillations) (oscillation of a quantum system between energy states under driving) with [Doppler cooling](https://www.edgepedia.org/doppler-cooling) alone, without the additional laser-cooling stages normally needed. The result combines machined-trap performance with on-chip miniaturization.<sup>[10](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09474-1)</sup>

## Key publications

**"Opportunities for fundamental physics research with radioactive molecules"** (*Reports on Progress in Physics* 87, 084301; 2024). A review, co-authored with G. Arrowsmith-Kron and many others, arguing that molecules containing short-lived radioactive nuclei can enable discoveries in fundamental symmetries, astrophysics, nuclear structure and chemistry, and mapping the advances and facilities needed to get there.<sup>[8](https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/ad1e39)</sup> Citation counts differ by database: iCite records about 14 citations, while [Google Scholar](https://www.edgepedia.org/google-scholar), as of September 2026, lists 61.<sup>[8](https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/ad1e39)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[11](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8Z2PVmUAAAAJ&hl=en)</sup>

**"Probing fundamental particles with molecules"** (*Science*; 2023). This article makes the point that molecular spectroscopy constrains the size of the electron's electric dipole moment, connecting the radioactive-molecule program to the broader electron EDM effort.<sup>[9](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi8499)</sup>

**"3D-printed micro ion trap technology for quantum information applications"** (*Nature* 645, 362; 2025). Demonstrated two-photon-polymerization 3D-printed traps holding calcium ions at radial frequencies of 2 to 24 MHz, with Doppler-cooling-only Rabi oscillations.<sup>[10](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09474-1)</sup> iCite lists 3 citations.<sup>[12](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40903582/)</sup>

His recent list also includes a 2025 *Physical Review Letters* paper on lifetimes of metastable states of Ra+, a 2025 *Physical Review A* on spectroscopy of 224Ra+ transitions, a 2025 PRA on precision comagnetometry for T-violation searches, and a 2024 *Physical Review Research* paper on laser cooling and trapping of 224Ra+.<sup>[4](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)</sup>

## Awards and recognition

The PECASE, announced January 14, 2025 by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., went to 55 DOE-funded scientists and engineers (2018-2022 awardees), including Jayich of UC Santa Barbara in the Office of Science section. His citation read: "For pioneering research to trap and control a radium ion within a radioactive molecule via quantum logic spectroscopy, determining the quantum state of the radioactive molecule, and subsequently using that information to transfer the molecule to a targeted state."<sup>[1](https://science.osti.gov/About/Honors-and-Awards/PECASE/Winners-Since-1996)</sup>

Earlier support shaped the program: a 2021 DOE Early Career Research Program award of $750,000 funding a graduate student, five summers of undergraduate research, and lasers for molecular-ion spectroscopy<sup>[3](https://news.ucsb.edu/2021/020334/rewarding-endeavor)</sup>; a 2021 NSF CAREER award<sup>[4](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)</sup>; a W. M. Keck Foundation grant for a cryogenic ion trap for spectroscopy on radioactive polyatomic molecules and time-symmetry-violation searches<sup>[6](https://news.ucsb.edu/2022/020538/high-risk-high-rewards)</sup>; a 2020 Moore Foundation Physics Innovation award; a 2019-2022 NSF grant "Developing a Radium Toolset for New Physics"; and, in 2024, a Moore Experimental Physics Investigator award.<sup>[4](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://physics.yale.edu/news/andrew-jayich-phd12-jack-harris-awarded-nsf-career-award-and-grant-wm-keck-foundation)</sup>

## References

1. [DOE's Winners Since 1996 | U.S. DOE Office of Science](https://science.osti.gov/About/Honors-and-Awards/PECASE/Winners-Since-1996)
2. [Andrew Jayich (lab site)](https://jayich.io/people/andrew-jayich)
3. [A Rewarding Endeavor | The Current (UCSB)](https://news.ucsb.edu/2021/020334/rewarding-endeavor)
4. [Andrew Jayich's CV](https://jayich.io/pdfs/people/andrew-jayich-cv.pdf)
5. [Andrew Jayich | Department of Physics (Yale)](https://physics.yale.edu/people/andrew-jayich)
6. [High Risk, High Rewards | The Current (UCSB)](https://news.ucsb.edu/2022/020538/high-risk-high-rewards)
7. [Andrew Jayich (Ph.D.'12 with Jack Harris), awarded an NSF CAREER award and a grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation](https://physics.yale.edu/news/andrew-jayich-phd12-jack-harris-awarded-nsf-career-award-and-grant-wm-keck-foundation)
8. [Opportunities for fundamental physics research with radioactive molecules, Rep. Prog. Phys.](https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/ad1e39)
9. [Probing fundamental particles with molecules, Science](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi8499)
10. [3D-printed micro ion trap technology for quantum information applications, Nature](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09474-1)
11. [Andrew Jayich - Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8Z2PVmUAAAAJ&hl=en)
12. [3D-printed micro ion trap technology (PubMed)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40903582/)
13. [Fan 2021 Oms Radium Molecules.pdf, jayich.io](https://jayich.io/pdfs/papers/fan-2021-oms-radium-molecules.pdf)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Physical world and mathematics › Physics › Physics methods, practice, and community › Physicists (biographies)*

*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026*

*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*

License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license