Home | Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics

Pioneering in Quantum Optics

The MPQ is one of the world’s leading institutes on Quantum Optics. As part of the Max Planck Society, we offer our scientists a unique infrastructure: state-of-the-art laboratories with first-class equipment, custom-made pieces from our own precision mechanical workshop, and an outstanding technical and administrative support. This excellent funding pays off: MPQ researchers publish around 200 publications per year, many of them in the highest-ranking journals like Science and Nature.

Our task to train and teach

Training young scientists is at the core of our work at MPQ. Our Ph.D. Candidates and Postdocs receive comprehensive and profound supervision so that many job opportunities in academia and industry arise for them after leaving the institute. We also strive to inspire and engage the general public for quantum optics, starting with the very young who can conduct quantum physical experiments in the PhotonLab, our student laboratory at MPQ. For all others, we regularly organize public events with popular science talks and lab tours.

Genius, diverse and likeable

Our top ranking in the field is owed to the people working at MPQ. We are fortunate to be able to attract the best researchers from all over the world. At the moment, scientists from close to 40 different nations are working at the institute. However, not only skill but also character matter to us. Treating each other with respect is just as important to us as making sure that everyone who works here feels comfortable. That’s why we are creating more and more opportunities for people to meet beyond the lab and workplace.

Gates to uncharted territory

Quantum physics represents one of the major scientific revelations of the 20^th century. It allows us to observe phenomena that often seem puzzling and counterintuitive to our experience of nature and the universe, phenomena that show us the boundaries of our knowledge. With our fundamental research, we push those boundaries further and further and open the gates to a new and uncharted territory of physics. One that holds the potential to change and shape our world, our knowledge, and our technologies forever. Currently, there are five different fields established at MPQ.

An excellent environment

The MPQ is part of the Research Campus Garching, one of the strongest research regions in Germany. Garching is in close connection to Munich, a city with a longstanding and rich culture, the Bavarian lake district and the alps. All with a high recreational value. Also scientifically we are at the heart of an excellent environment: locally, we maintain close ties with the elite universities LMU and TU Munich, and internationally to more distant excellence institutions like Harvard or Princeton. Furthermore, outstanding scientists from all over the globe visit us as guests and speakers on a daily basis.

Newsroom

"I just love learning"

January 13, 2022

News from the Institute

One of the youngest university graduates in the world has been a guest of the attoworld team - Laurent Simons. Here, the highly gifted boy from Antwerp tells us what particularly excited him.

Exploration of new frequency frontiers

January 07, 2022

Research

An international team of physicists under the leadership of Prof. Matthias Kling at the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität has extended a measurement method for the observation of light-induced processes in solids.

Librarian with heart and soul

January 05, 2022

News from the Institute Portrait

Karin Fröschl plays a central role at MPQ: as head of the scientific library she is a highly valued advisor for all matters around the management of publications - as acting conflict counselor also for various others.

Generous quantum funding in Bavaria

December 22, 2021

News from the Institute Projects

Bavaria's Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger has handed over funding certificates totalling 52 million euros for the development of a Bavarian quantum computer. The Max Planck and Fraunhofer Institutes involved in the Munich Quantum Valley (MQV) received the funding in an official handover yesterday at the Max Planck Institut of Quantum Optics.The two organisations are jointly developing hardware and software for the construction and operation of quantum computers in Garching and at other locations.

Holography meets frequency combs

November 25, 2021

Research

Holography is a powerful technique of photography of a light field without a lens for 3D imaging and display. Now, scientists at the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics move holography forward by implementing it with optical frequency combs. Thousands of holograms over all colors of the rainbow can be recorded.

Immanuel Bloch receives the Bavarian Maximilian Order

November 11, 2021

Awards News from the Institute

The Maximilian Order for Science and Art is the highest distinction in Bavaria for outstanding contributions in these two disciplines. Immanuel Bloch receives the medal for his pioneering works in quantum physics with which he has opened up a new and interdisciplinary field of research at the crossing of quantum optics, quantum information processing and solid-state physics: the exploration of quantum many body systems.

All News

Events

Munich Quantum Valley Kickoff Event

March 01, 2021

Events

Kick-off event for new research initiative sets the starting signal for the second quantum revolution in Bavaria, Thursday, 04 March 2021 from 10 am - 12 pm (CET) via livestream on Youtube