Matthias Körber makes an important step to prolong the storage duration of photonic quantum states.

After five and a half years of research, Matthias Körber successfully completed his PhD in December 2020.

March 29, 2021

In 2014, Matthias Körber started his PhD at MPQ. His goal: researching the interaction of light and matter to improve the storage duration and exchange of quantum information encoded onto a single photon for future quantum network applications. Precisely, in his thesis titling "Long-lived and efficient qubit memory for photonic quantum networks", he worked on the coherent absorption and emission of a photonic qubit state from a single atom and the coherence properties and efficiency of the storage.

Over the course of this research, an unprecedented storage time for single-photon polarization qubits of more than 100 milliseconds was achieved. This constitutes an improvement by almost three orders of magnitude and is the first demonstration of a photonic storage duration that exceeds the minimum requirement needed to teleport a quantum state in a global quantum network.

Matthias initially started his academic career in theoretical physics, but for his PhD research at MPQ he made a change to experimental physics: "Manipulating the state of a single atom with a single photon not only on paper but in the laboratory is a rich and extraordinary experience you cannot have in your garage. Next to the unique research opportunities and the enjoyment of seeing physics at work on the fundamental level, the most memorable aspects of MPQ are the many brilliant and helpful researchers I had a chance to meet. They are constantly pushing our understanding and control of the strange world of quantum physics over the limit", Matthias Körber says.

What's next?

Almost two years ago, Matthias Körber started a career as a software engineer at Google, where he is currently working as technical lead with a team of six people on the Chrome browser. 

 

The MPQ wishes him all the best for his future!

 

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