Prof. Milan Allan’s research group develops one-of-its-kind quantum microscopes and uses them to understand the intriguing physics of quantum materials. In quantum mechanics, particles can be described as waves. Quantum materials are materials in which the world of quantum mechanics determines the macroscopic properties in unexpected ways. Often, the electrons form collective states, where they all form one quantum mechanical wave.
Allan’s team uses scanning tunneling microscopes, which can investigate the properties of quantum materials atom by atom, to map out the wave functions. They also develop novel techniques, for example, measuring not only the electronic currents but also the fluctuations, locally and with extreme precision.
At LMU, his team will integrate new quantum sensors into their microscopes that use the interference of electron waves to measure tiny magnetic fields. One application of this microscope will be as a diagnostic tool for chips used in quantum computers.
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Prof. Wolfgang Mauerer’s Laboratory for Digitalisation (LfD) primarily focuses on the intersection between quantum computing, systems engineering, and software engineering, with a wide range of international partners. Based on support at the European, national, and state level, and in commercially funded collaborations, he and his group contribute to clarifying fundamental quantum problems, developing quantum communication and software, as well as co-designing quantum applications. A highlight of the year was a novel quantum approach for finding optimal join orders in database systems, one of the most widely investigated and computationally challenging problems in the field. Apart from establishing a new strand of research in the community, an adaptation to quantum-inspired hardware could outperform decades of intensive research and commercial development, and tangibly improve the practical state of the art.
By helping establish a Special Interest Group on Quantum Computing at the Gesellschaft für Informatik e. V. (GI), and leading workshops on quantum machine learning and quantum database acceleration at high-profile conferences, Mauerer’s team supports cross-disciplinary community building. Mauerer has introduced quantum computer science in OTH’s computer science curriculum already nearly a decade ago. “Quantum Technology” as a new course of study, together with a currently procured quantum-key-distribution system and cross-faculty hands-on quantum labs, complement the quantum R&D efforts of OTH Regensburg and Mauerer’s team.
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Over the past decade, the research and development of applied quantum technologies such as quantum simulators, quantum computers, quantum sensors, or quantum networks has become a major endeavor in scientific research. The goal of these research activities is the quantum technology revolution, driven by the potential of quantum systems to outperform their classical counterparts. Quantum technologies are known to be more sensitive (quantum sensing), provide higher security (quantum network), or even enable functionality beyond a classical approach (quantum entanglement). In analogy to an “internet of things” these functionalities can be combined in a “quantum network of things”. A quantum network of stationary quantum memory nodes, connected via photons can combine quantum computers, quantum simulators, and quantum sensors. As part of the ongoing research efforts, Prof. Roland Nagy and his team are focusing on realizing this task. They are using single spins (color centers) as communication qubits to realize a quantum network and nuclear spins as quantum memories.
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The professorship deals with topics at the interface between quantum optics and condensed matter physics. A particular interest lies in collective phenomena that occur in the presence of strong light–matter interactions and their potential applications in the control of quantum material functions as well as in nonlinear quantum optics. Currently, the main focus is on recent experiments on implementing a new, non-relativistic quantum electrodynamics (QED) regime in quantum materials, achieved by confining light e.g. in a resonator. A reliable description of this many-body problem is a major challenge and is currently being developed by a continuously growing group of scientists. The group uses tailored field-theoretical approaches that extend methods from condensed matter theory and quantum optics and bring them together in a consistent, comprehensive and flexible framework. It works in close contact with the experimental groups where the latest developments occur, both in solids and ultracold atomic gases. While the former platforms will ultimately provide scalable quantum technologies to exploit QED effects, the latter will enable microscopically controlled exploration of the underlying phenomenology and a testbed for our theoretical understanding of novel collective behavior.
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The realization of practical quantum technologies still faces many scientific and technological challenges, which arise, loosely speaking, from the incompatibility of fragile quantum states with the surrounding classical world. In his newly established group “Applied Quantum Theory”, which is co-located at the Technical University of Munich and the Walther Meißner Institute, Prof. Peter Rabl approaches this challenge from a theoretical perspective and aims to develop novel protocols and control techniques to manipulate quantum systems in a more efficient and robust way. These methods will make it possible to preserve quantum superpositions longer, to build quantum processors with more and more qubits, and to reduce the immense classical control overhead still required to operate such systems.
In this context, a specific focus is placed on the theory of hybrid quantum systems, with the long-term goal of integrating quantum systems realized on different physical platforms into a single quantum device or connecting them over long distances via the “quantum internet”. Beyond this application-oriented research, Rabl’s group is also interested in modeling novel quantum phenomena that are not yet accessible in nature but can be observed in artificial quantum devices with specifically designed interactions.
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Novel quantum materials can enable innovation in many technologies, as they promise, for example, significant improvements in energy efficiency. Prof. Giorgio Sangiovanni and his group are investigating such materials at the newly established Chair of Computational Quantum Materials at the JMU Würzburg, and are able to bridge the gap between theory and experiment through their extensive knowledge of the chemical composition of materials and the use of their computational tools. Together, they allow him to predict new phenomena emerging in complex materials due to the interactions of their electrons. His tools range from state-of-the-art many-body algorithms to artificial intelligence in order to explore quantum systems with a large number of interacting particles.
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With the appointment of Prof. Andreas Stute to the R&D professorship for Optical Quantum Technologies, the Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm joined MQV in May 2023. The applied research at TH Nuremberg in the area of optical quantum technologies focuses on the miniaturization and industrialization of photonic elements and optical systems for quantum devices. In order to enable this research, the investment in large-scale research equipment has been approved: On the one hand, a femtosecond laser system will be established for writing waveguides and diffractive structures in transparent materials such as optical fibers and bulk optical elements. Through wavelength conversion, this fs-laser could also be used for deterministic generation of vacancies in diamond or semiconductors for application in single-photon emitters or quantum sensing devices. On the other hand, a commercial multi-photon nanolithographic system will be acquired for the 3D printing of polymer optical elements. Both kinds of optical elements will serve as photonic subsystems that provide excitation light to or collect fluorescence light from atoms, ions and artificial atoms. In this way, the developed optical elements should serve as photonic enabling technologies in ion-trap or neutral-atom quantum computers, sensors based on vacancy centers, or photon sources for quantum key distribution. This interdisciplinary research will be realized through the activities of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Physics and Humanities and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Precision Engineering and Information Technology in collaboration with the Polymer Optical Fiber Application Center.
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Prof. Tobias Vogl studies optical quantum technologies. This involves using fluorescent defects in crystals that can generate quantum light at room temperature. These defects are combined with photonic inte- grated circuits to build compact quantum chips that can be used in various applications. Among applications being investigated is satellite-based quantum communication, where information is encoded in single-photon states of light and transmitted over very long distances through the atmosphere. This scenario is currently being evaluated as part of the QUICK3 mission coordinated by Prof. Vogl. The goal is to develop a quantum-secured internet of the future with quantum communication links and network connections between distributed quantum computers.
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