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.

Reilly's Quantum Nanoscience Laboratory works on the interface between quantum devices and the classical control hardware needed to run them at scale — custom VLSI CMOS operating below 100 mK, high-bandwidth dispersive readout, and cryogenic microwave engineering — a programme built up during his long association with Microsoft's quantum effort. A distinct and directly relevant second thread is the manipulation of spin states in nanoparticles for new imaging modalities in medicine: hyperpolarisation and spin-state engineering of nanoparticle contrast agents, which is quantum control applied to MRI. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — the cryo-CMOS readout chain he builds is exactly the enabling technology that would let a pT/sqrt(Hz) spin-ensemble sensor be multiplexed into an array rather than run one channel at a time; and the nanoparticle-MRI thread is an independent route into biological spin sensing. Large group, strong engineering culture, significant industry entanglement.

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.

Tan leads the Superconducting Quantum Detectors group, holding ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants. Two main research pillars: (1) Quantum-limited SIS mixer development — pushing THz SIS heterodyne receivers above the Nb gap (~700 GHz) using NbTiN/NbN films for next-generation ALMA wideband sensitivity upgrade (Band 9) and large-format focal-plane mixer arrays for JCMT/SMA; (2) Superconducting parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) — fabricating kinetic-inductance and Josephson-junction TWPAs achieving near-quantum-limited broadband noise performance from microwave to THz, with applications to dark matter/axion searches (ABRACADABRA/prototype cavity haloscope), quantum computing qubit readout, and CMB-grade receivers. Group is transitioning TWPA fabrication in-house using Beecroft Building cleanroom. ERC Consolidator Grant awarded 2024.

Thompson leads the Ion Trapping Group at Imperial using RF (Paul) traps with laser-cooled Ca-40 ions and Penning traps. Research foci: (1) High-fidelity quantum logic gates — optimal control techniques for single-ion state manipulation and two-qubit gates; demonstrated >1 s coherence times via Ramsey interferometry in a Penning trap; (2) Precision spectroscopy — ytterbium ion optical clock uncertainty characterisation at 2.2×10^−18 fractional uncertainty (NPL collaboration); proposed precision laser spectrometer for highly charged ions (HCI) in cylindrical Penning traps for QED tests; (3) Axion sensing — collaborating with Devlin on the Penning-trap single-electron photon counter for axion searches; (4) Coulomb crystals — ultrahigh resolution spectroscopy of ion crystals. Past work includes SPECTRAP project at GSI Darmstadt for HCI spectroscopy.

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.