Research News

Articles and press release about new publications from our institute.

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Breakthrough in Ultraviolet Spectroscopy

Researchers have successfully developed a new technique for deciphering the properties of light and matter that can simultaneously detect and precisely quantify many substances with high chemical selectivity. Their technique interrogates the atoms and molecules in the ultraviolet spectral region at very feeble light levels - a breakthrough that paves the way for exciting new opportunities in photon-level diagnostics.  more

Chemistry takes an ultracold turn - First tetratomic supermolecules realised at nanokelvin temperatures

Researchers at MPQ have demonstrated a novel method to create tetratomic supermolecules at a so far unprecedented low-temperature scale down to 134 nK – a breakthrough with far-reaching implications for ultracold chemistry and quantum materials. more

HORUS pushes attosecond physics

Laser physicists from the attoworld team at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München (LMU) have developed a new and unique high-power laser system for driving the attosecond beamlines and ultrafast attosecond experiments at MPQ. The new laser “HORUS” (High-power OPCPA system for high Repetition rate Ultrafast Spectroscopy) operates in the near-infrared spectral range at ... more

Snapshots of photoinjection

During photoinjection, an electron that cannot move freely through a solid receives enough energy from a light wave to become mobile. Scientists have been exploring this phenomenon since the beginning of quantum mechanics; nevertheless, there are still open questions about how the relevant processes unfold in time.  Laser physicists of MPQ and LMU have now made a direct observation of... more

Mimicking Quantum Chemistry: Analogue quantum simulation of pseudomolecules

The simulation of quantum chemical processes promises a lot of progress, such as the discovery of new chains of reactions, new synthetic materials or pharmaceuticals. But it is an enormous task, which known methods have failed to date. For classical supercomputers, the molecules are too complex, and for quantum simulations with cold atoms, the technological hurdles are still too high. In a new paper, theorists have now developed... more

A quantum switch for the world’s lightest mirror

Researchers at MPQ have created a switchable metamaterial: an atomic array whose optical qualities can be tuned to become either reflective or transparent. The findings build on team’s previous research on so-called “ordered atomic arrays” that enable efficient interaction between light and atoms. more

Matchmaking atoms into a new molecular Fermi gas

Researchers at MPQ have created a first-ever degenerate Fermi gas of sodium-potassium molecules. To this end, they drove a Bose-Fermi atomic mixture through a previously hypothetical quantum phase transition. The team's trick is to match the densities of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of sodium atoms and a Fermi gas of potassium atoms. more

Microwaves direct the interplay of waltzing molecules

A team of researchers at MPQ has for the first time observed evidence of a phenomenon that had previously only been suspected in theory: when ultracold polar molecules collide exotic bound states can arise. An experiment now indicates that this effect is indeed possible. For their investigations, the researchers used a specifically shaped microwave field with which they... more

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