Newsroom

Physicists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich in collaboration with Stanford University have used for the first time laser light to control the location of light-induced reactions on the surface of nanoparticles. more

For the first time, researchers have succeeded in observing a new transport phenomenon in spin chains under the microscope - with surprising results: the movement in the quantum world resembles certain phenomena known from everyday life like the form of coffee stains on a tablecloth. more

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics succeeded in massively improving the performance of photon based quantum gates which are a crucial component for future optical quantum systems. more

Lasers, light, atoms -  one day as a quantum optician. On Girls' Day 2022, ten girls visited the MPQ. The participants, aged between thirteen and fifteen, gained varied insights into the institute's work areas and research topics, tried their hand at the numerous experiments in the MPQ student lab and experimented with liquid nitrogen. more

She is the first woman physicist in Germany in the field of atomic, molecular and optical physics to be awarded this renowned grant. With the prestigious ERC Advanced Grants, the European Research Council supports established scientists with a track record of significant research achievements in the last ten years who want to pursue a ground-breaking idea. more

As part of her doctoral thesis, Nathalie Nagl developed a new generation of highly compact ultrashort pulse lasers in the infrared spectral range, which can be used, for example, to precisely analyze blood samples. This should enable diseases to be detected earlier in the future. The Max Planck Society honours this success with the Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding achievements by young scientists. more

As part of the nationwide initiative Catching up after Corona (“Aufholen nach Corona”), the MPQ student lab has launched a programme to get students interested in lasers, light and geometric patterns. A first pilot project has already launched successfully, with further projects to take place throughout the year. more

A team of scientists at CERN led by MPQ physicist Masaki Hori has found that a hybrid antimatter-matter atom behaves in an unexpected way when submerged in superfluid helium. The result may open a new way for antimatter to be used to study the properties of condensed matter, or to search for antimatter in cosmic rays. more

The MPQ Photonlab is once again awarded with the LeLa Prize of the Federal Association of German School Labs, this time in the category “experiment of the year”. They entered the competition with the quantum random number generator experiment, set up by doctoral student Linda Qerimi as part of her doctoral thesis at LMU. more

Hartmut Schröder (77) has known the Max Planck Institute since youth. He became a research assistant a good 44 years ago. Shortly afterwards, the MPQ was founded. Schröder helped set up the first working groups at the MPQ. Today he is still active at the institute. Here he recalls how it all began and tells how times have changed. more

Annie Park, doctoral student of the Quantum Many Body Systems division, successfully completed her PhD in December 2021. For her dissertation project, she built a new strontium-based quantum simulator that will help significantly improve the quality of future quantum simulations as well as expand them to new areas. Congratulations! more

With immediate effect, the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany freezes scientific cooperation with state institutions and business enterprises in Russia. Also, a call by hundreds of Russian scientists and science journalists against the war of the Russian regime came online.  more