How do you trap individual atoms with lasers and what does an optical laboratory look like from the inside? What is a clean room and how do you produce chip structures in it that are so small that no dust particles must interfere? What is a cryostat and how do you use it to generate temperatures colder than in outer space? And what does all this have to do with quantum computers?
In the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology 2025, the member institutes of Munich Quantum Valley (MQV) are opening their doors and providing insights into current cutting-edge research in the field of quantum technology. In lectures and guided tours, our scientists will show what it means to do quantum research today.
100 years of quantum science
The foundations for current research were laid 100 years ago with the formulation of quantum mechanics. The strange behavior of quantum objects, heavily debated by scientists such as Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, is no longer confined to theoretical considerations and thought experiments – today we are able to manipulate this behavior in laboratories and in the first commercial products and use it for applications.
MQV focuses on the development of quantum computers. The events series “MQV-Einblicke” (in German language) shows what plays a role in this and how diverse research into quantum computers is – from controlling individual atoms and developing the most space-saving cables possible to programming suitable software.
Experience current quantum research on site
Over the course of 2025, the MQV research institutes invite visitors to experience first-hand what quantum research looks like at their institute. These include, among others, the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Microsystems and Solid State Technologies, the Max Planck Semiconductor Laboratory and the Walter Schottky Institute of the Technical University of Munich. The series will open on 19 February with a lecture by the former scientific director of MQV, Prof. Dr. Rainer Blatt, at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich.