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For over a decade, Dr Silke Stähler-Schöpf has led the MPQ Student Lab PhotonLab with impressive success: this year alone, around 3, 000 students visited the PhotonLab to explore experiments on lasers, light, and quantum physics. For her extensive contributions to physics education and outreach, Silke Stähler-Schöpf receives the 2025 Georg-Kerschensteiner Prize, awarded annually by the German Physical Society.
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The rare-earth element erbium could play a key role in future quantum networks: Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), led by Andreas Reiserer, have succeeded in spectrally resolving and individually controlling up to 360 erbium ions in a thin crystal membrane — more than three times as many as before. Their findings were published in the scientific journal Advanced Optical Materials. more

Theorists have made a significant stride in the field of quantum computing. Their research addresses a long-standing question: can quantum computers really outperform classical computers in solving complex problems, despite the presence of errors? In a new study focusing on analogue quantum simulators – specialised quantum devices used to mimic physical systems – the researchers could show precisely that. more

A team of researchers from the Munich Quantum Valley, led by the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in collaboration with the quantum computing start-up planqc, has succeeded in running a register of 1200 atoms continuously for over an hour. Until now, arrangements of this size have been difficult to maintain due to unavoidable atomic losses. This new achievements marks a breakthrough on the way to scalable quantum computers. more

Systems consisting of many small particles can be highly complex and chaotic – and yet some can still be described using simple theories. However, whether this also extends to the world of quantum physics has remained unclear. Researchers from Ludwig Maximilian University and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics have now found indications that quantum many-body systems can be macroscopically described by simple diffusion equations with random noise. The results were recently published in Nature Physics. more

The Quantum Talents Symposium Munich is a joint initiative of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), the Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST), the International Max Planck Research School for Quantum Science and Technology (IMPRS-QST) and the Munich Quantum Valley (MQV). Its main goals are to provide a platform for emerging early-career researchers, facilitate knowledge sharing, inspire collaboration, and promote career opportunities in quantum science. more

The theoretical physicist, who is currently being hosted by the MPQ Theory Division, has won a 2024 Starting Grant from the European Research Council. The ERC Starting Grant is the highest award for excellent young scientists in Europe. With this funding, Jad C. Halimeh and his group intend to advance current concepts of quantum simulation, particularly for higher-dimensional gauge theories and their far-from-equilibrium quantum many-body dynamics. more

Attention quantum friends! As part of the new communication and education project Quanten(t)räume of the Deutsches Museum and other institutions in Munich, the MPQ school laboratory PhotonLab is now for the first time offering visits to anyone aged 14 and interested in quantum physics. More than 20 different experimental stations are waiting to help grasp the basics of quantum physics and to learn how these phenomena shape our technologies today and in the future. On Friday per month, starting October. more

As a Reader, he will continue his successful research on quantum simulations of complex materials in Glasgow. Reader is the third of four academic ranks in the UK system and comparable to a W2 professorship. It involves teaching physics and working as an independent researcher. At MPQ, Timon Hilker has been heading the Lithium Quantum Gas Microscope laboratory at MPQ since 2010, and together with Philipp Preiss, the FermiQP project. more

Some common diseases could be easier and quicker to diagnose in the future. A team from MPQ, LMU and Helmholtz Zentrum München has demonstrated that infrared light measurements of blood plasma when combined with machine learning can be used to detect various metabolic disorders such as type-2 diabetes and high blood pressure. The method also detected prediabetes, a precursor stage of diabetes that other diagnostic methods often overlook. more

Usually rather rare, but for MPQ since last autumn the status quo: two Nobel Prizes in less than twenty years – in the comparatively short institute history of only 45 years. Not many research institutions this size around the globe can say the same. That’s why two of these special emblems from now on will shine proudly on the driveway to the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics – signs of scientific success that speak for themselves. more

After the successful live premiere weekend on June 29 and 30, 2024 at the “Münchner Wissenschaftstage / forscha” and the “Festival der Zukunft” at the Deutsches Museum, the third episode of the German language radio play “Alice im Quantenland” is now available to listen to on all popular streaming portals. This time, Alice, Schrödinger and Rabbit go to the quantum fair, where there are once again some unusual things to discover and experience. more