Pop's group builds superconducting quantum circuits from high-kinetic-inductance materials, above all granular aluminium, and uses them as detectors. The distinctive capability is single-microwave-photon detection and QND photon counting with superinductor-based devices -- an extremely low dark-count, quantum-limited receiver in the GHz band -- plus fluxonium-type qubits, quantum-limited and travelling-wave parametric amplification, and studies of quasiparticle and noise mechanisms that set coherence limits. The direct sensing payoff is dark-matter search: a photon counter that beats the standard quantum limit lets a haloscope integrate far faster than an amplifier-based readout. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), this is the microwave/superconducting counterpart to an NV ensemble -- same objective (detect an absurdly weak field), different physical platform and roughly opposite temperature regime. A recent addition to Stuttgart's 1st Institute of Physics, so the lab is being built out now, which usually means unusual latitude for a postdoc.
Quidant leads the Nanophotonic Systems Laboratory, developing hybrid integrated levitation platforms combining optical and RF fields. Research directions: (1) Measurement-free coherent optical feedback cooling of levitated nanoparticles (PRL 2025, phonon occupations ~100s); (2) Quantum sensing applications — ultra-sensitive force/acceleration sensing, directional dark matter detection with levitated sensors; (3) Meta-atom levitation — Mie-resonance high-permittivity particles in optical traps for extreme light-matter interaction; (4) Optofluidics — structured light for photothermal fluid control; (5) Cancer phototherapy — photothermal nanoparticle applications. Pioneer in nanoplasmonic tweezers, thermoplasmonics, and on-chip biosensing. Key co-author of Science levitodynamics review (2021).
John Rarity's group works on quantum-enhanced measurements and free-space quantum key distribution. Research: (1) quantum imaging with undetected photons — mid-infrared gas sensing (CO2, CH4) exploiting entangled photon pairs, with only near-IR photons detected (startup QLM); (2) sub-shot-noise imaging using quantum-identical photon beams; (3) spin-photon interfaces (1D cavity with near-unit scattering efficiency); (4) compact satellite QKD transmitters (EPSRC Quantum Comms Hub). Highly relevant to quantum-enhanced sensing.
Massimiliano Rossi's lab focuses on levitated systems, optical tweezers, and quantum measurement. Research: (1) optically levitated nanoparticles for force sensing and zeptonewton-scale measurements; (2) quantum measurement and control of levitated systems approaching the quantum ground state; (3) back-action-evading measurement schemes for levitated oscillators; (4) exploring quantum-to-classical transitions. The lab is developing levitated systems as sensors for dark matter and gravitational waves.
Giulia Rubino's research bridges quantum foundations and quantum technologies using integrated photonics. Research: (1) indefinite causal order — experimental demonstration of quantum switch using photonic chips; (2) quantum thermodynamics — fundamental limits of thermodynamic work extraction in quantum systems; (3) quantum information processing with photonic integrated circuits. Appointed Lecturer January 2024.
Rudolph is a pioneer of measurement-based and fusion-based photonic quantum computing architectures; he co-founded PsiQuantum and continues to work on the theory of scalable linear-optical quantum computation and quantum foundations at Imperial.
Safavi-Naeini's group engineers nanoscale optomechanical and electromechanical devices -- phononic-crystal membranes and superconducting-circuit-coupled resonators -- for quantum-limited force and displacement sensing and for coherent microwave-to-optical quantum transduction linking superconducting qubits to photonic quantum networks.
Studies neutral-atom quantum computing and quantum optics with Rydberg atoms in optical tweezer arrays, including entanglement, nonlinear optics, and Rydberg-based electrometry/sensing.
Sapienza's Integrated Quantum Photonics group studies quantum optics on a chip, developing nanophotonic devices that integrate solid-state single-photon emitters (III-V quantum dots) with photonic crystal and plasmonic cavities, alongside investigations of quantum effects in biomolecules.
Sayrin works on circular Rydberg-atom cavity QED at LKB, developing microwave-photon quantum-non-demolition detection and feedback-based quantum control protocols that build on the cavity-QED foundations pioneered by Haroche and Brune's team.