Research

Physicists at the MPQ have engineered the lightest optical mirror imaginable. The novel metamaterial is made of a single structured layer consisting only of a few hundred identical atoms arranged in the two dimensional array of an optical lattice formed by interfering laser beams. So far, the mirror is the only one of its kind.  more

An international team of physicists from the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität (LMU) and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics together with collaborators from the University of Cambridge, TU Berlin and the Université Libre de Bruxelles succeeded in realizing a novel genuine time-dependent topological system with ultracold atoms in periodically-driven optical honeycomb lattices. more

Semiconductors play an important role, be it in electronics, optoelectronics or photovoltaics. But like other solid bodies, they are quantum many-body systems. Therefore, a calculation of their material properties would overburden conventional computers. Instead, this task could be performed by a quantum system with comparable properties that is fully controllable from the outside. more

Physicists of the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics have measured the flight times of electrons in molecules after their creation with light. The small quantum particles were emitted from a specific atom within the molecules, which enabled to measure the molecular influence on their emission time. The results open new opportunities to study the forces that are holding molecules together in better detail. more

MPQ Scientists opened a new window into the quantum world. After eight years they succeeded in a challenging experiment with PSI and CERN: they created an artificial atom, the so-called pionic helium, in which the shortlived pion can survive a thousand times longer than in usually does. more