Research News

Entanglement today is THE tool of quantum information science. But it is highly sensitive and its creation between resting qubits (atoms) and flying qubits (photons) at the push of a button an enormous challenge. Using a multiplexing technique and laser tweezers in optical resonators, a team from the quantum dynamics department at MPQ recently succeeded in doing exactly that with a near complete efficiency. more

Time passes faster in Munich than in Braunschweig – the difference has to do with the fact that Munich is geographically higher. Although it is miniscule at around one second in a million years, it can be measured very accurately using optical atomic clocks. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) have now measured the difference in altitude between the two cities using two optical clocks.  more

An experimental team from the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich successfully observed and manipulated the peculiar states emerging at topological boundaries, so-called edge modes. Key to the researchers’ breakthrough was the level of unprecedented control over the experimental parameters, which previously rendered the observation of these edge-modes elusive. The results are featured in Nature Physics. more

Physicists at MPQ have now succeeded for the first time in creating a ring-shaped and a tree-shaped graph state in an experiment for complex entanglement structures. This is a major breakthrough for the development of quantum computers or the quantum internet. In a future quantum internet, light quanta could thereby be entangled to form a quantum message that is much more stable against losses. more

Theorists in the research group of Mari Carmen Bañuls at MPQ have come one step closer to understanding the evolution of quantum many body systems over time. In their work, recently published in the specialized journal Physical Review Letters, they formulated an algorithm to simulate the dynamics of quantum systems consisting of many particles out of equilibrium – a notoriously difficult task. more

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

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

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