Gary Steele's lab works on quantum circuits and mechanical quantum systems, exploring quantum phenomena in nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) and superconducting circuit systems. Research includes: (1) superconducting qubit-membrane optomechanics and electromechanics; (2) circuit quantum acoustodynamics (cQAD) — coupling superconducting qubits to phonons; (3) analog quantum simulation with quantum circuits; (4) probing quantum materials (graphene, 2D materials) with superconducting circuits. The group develops novel quantum sensors for mechanical forces and electromagnetic fields.
The Stern Group explores fundamental quantum interactions of photons with 2D materials, nano-scale structures, and atoms. Key thrusts: (1) Valley-selective exciton-polaritons in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (MoS₂, MoSe₂, WSe₂) embedded in optical microcavities — hybrid light-matter quasiparticles with valley-selective polarization and cavity-modified dynamics; (2) 2D semiconductor quantum emitters — quantum-dot-like single-photon emitters formed by confinement in TMD nanoribbons and by chemical functionalization/strain engineering of defects; (3) Astrophotonics: collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and the Australian Astronomical Observatory to design and fabricate silicon ring-resonator photonic circuits for OH sky-background suppression in near-IR astronomical spectrographs; (4) Quantum non-reciprocal photonics in axisymmetric microresonators. Experimental tools: time-resolved spectroscopy, single-photon counting, nanofabrication. DOE Early Career Award; ONR Young Investigator Award; Sloan Research Fellow 2013. Affiliated with Fermilab-Northwestern CAPST.
Suleymanzade builds hybrid quantum systems that couple Rydberg atoms, superconducting circuits, and nanophotonics to create new quantum interfaces and entanglement resources for quantum networking, communication, and sensing, following earlier work on silicon-vacancy diamond quantum networks. The lab is actively recruiting postdocs.
Treps leads the Multimode Quantum Optics group at LKB. Research directions: (1) Multimode quantum frequency combs — synchronously pumped OPO (SPOPO) generates entangled networks of squeezed modes with configurable graph structure; first demonstration of quantum frequency comb with multimode squeezing (PRL 2012); (2) Quantum-enhanced multiparameter estimation — quantum Fisher information and multimode squeezing for simultaneous beyond-shot-noise parameter estimation (e.g., frequency comb spectral centroid and energy, PRX 2020); (3) Non-Gaussian quantum states — heralded generation of non-Gaussian cluster states for CV quantum computing; (4) Quantum metrological inequalities — relating non-locality to parameter estimation. Spin-off: Cailabs (multimode fiber light-shaping for telecom and industrial lasers). Co-director of QICS. ERC-funded.
Nicolas Treps' multimode quantum optics group (with Valentina Parigi and Claude Fabre) generates and characterises highly multimode squeezed and entangled states of light. Research: (1) optical frequency combs as multimode squeezed state resources — quantum metrology and sensing with frequency combs; (2) reconfigurable multimode squeezed state networks for quantum computing and sensing; (3) spatiotemporal squeezing with optical parametric amplifiers. Key for quantum-enhanced sensing with light.
Hendrik Ulbricht's group pioneers levitated optomechanics and macroscopic quantum systems. Research: (1) optical levitation of nanoparticles for zeptonewton force sensing and quantum-to-classical transition tests; (2) magnetic levitation of micromagnets (diamagnetically stabilised) as ultralight dark matter detectors and magnetometers (fT/√Hz sensitivity demonstrated with LeMaMa levitated ferromagnet); (3) spin entanglement witness for quantum gravity (BMV experiment — levitated diamond with NV centre); (4) tests of the Diósi-Penrose model of wavefunction collapse. Multiple Reviews of Modern Physics; active in macroscopic quantum physics community.
Urvoy develops cold-atom/optical-nanofiber quantum interfaces for atom-photon entanglement and quantum-memory applications, part of LKB's quantum-network research line alongside Julien Laurat and Hanna Le Jeannic.
Utzat studies the quantum optical properties of single colloidal quantum dots and perovskite nanocrystals, using photon-correlation spectroscopy to characterize and improve their performance as solid-state single-photon sources for quantum photonic applications. The group is actively recruiting postdocs.
van Loock leads theoretical quantum optics and quantum information at Mainz, with a long-standing focus on continuous-variable quantum optics: squeezed and other nonclassical Gaussian states, non-Gaussian resources such as cat and GKP states, hybrid discrete/continuous-variable encodings, and the error-correction and repeater architectures built on them. The group also works on the fundamental limits of quantum-enhanced measurement and on how nonclassical light can be used as a metrological resource. He is theory-first, with output that directly serves the experimental quantum-optics and trapped-ion groups in Mainz. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), the relevance is on the fundamental-light-physics axis rather than the magnetometry axis: this is where the squeezing/nonclassical-state theory sits that would let a spin-ensemble sensor beat the standard quantum limit.
Vanner leads the Quantum Measurement Lab, combining experiment and theory. Key research areas: (1) Cavity quantum optomechanics — developed a theoretical framework capturing nonlinear radiation-pressure beyond the linearised approximation, showing deterministic mechanical Wigner-negativity generation; demonstrated mechanical position-squared measurements in Nature Comms (2016); thermal noise squeezing by 36 dB (Nat. Comms 2013); (2) Brillouin-Mandelstam scattering — demonstrated strong coupling to high-frequency phonons (Optica 2019); single-phonon addition/subtraction via Brillouin (PRL 2021); quantum state tomography with non-Gaussianity; (3) Hybrid quantum systems — 'displacemon' architecture (nanobeam magnetically coupled to superconducting qubit, PRX 2018) for testing objective collapse and dark matter; (4) Quantum gravity tests — proposals for testing the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP) using optomechanical protocols. UKRI QTFP fellowship.