Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics
Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics
Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics
Category: research Institute
Carrier: Max Planck Society
Legal form of the carrier: Registered association
Seat of the wearer: Munich
Facility location: Garching near Munich
Type of research: Basic research
Subjects: Natural sciences
Areas of expertise: Quantum optics , quantum physics , laser physics , atomic physics
Management: Immanuel Bloch (Managing Director)
Employee: approx. 350
Homepage: www.mpq.mpg.de

The Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) is one of the 84 institutes of the Max Planck Society . It is based in Garching near Munich .

Five scientific departments are currently established at the MPQ:

The central theme is the interaction of light and matter under extremely controlled conditions. Light spreads as an electromagnetic wave and at the same time behaves like a shower of particles, the photons. New experiments allow deep insights into the interaction of natural forces and pave the way to powerful quantum computers, high-resolution microscopy and new radiation sources for medicine. Theorists develop new concepts and algorithms for quantum communication.

history

The Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics was founded on January 1st, 1981. It emerged from the project group for laser research , which started work on January 1, 1976 , following an agreement between the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology and the Max Planck Society .

The core of the project group was made up of employees from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) who worked in the field of high-power laser development and its application in fusion research. The aims of the project group for laser research were to research and use the special possibilities of laser sources in plasma physics, chemistry, spectroscopy and related areas.

The project group began its work with 46 employees under the leadership of the directors Karl-Ludwig Kompa , Herbert Walther and Siegbert Witkowski . When the MPQ was founded, the group had grown to 82 employees in the laser physics (head: Herbert Walther), laser chemistry (head: Karl-Ludwig Kompa) and laser plasmas (head: Siegbert Witkowski) departments. In April 1986, the appointment of Theodor Hänsch, then Stanford University , expanded the institute to include a fourth department, "Laser Spectroscopy".

In the initial phase, the institute was initially housed in a building belonging to the IPP. In July 1986, the new building on the southern edge of the research site in Garching with a main usable area of ​​6,600 m² was occupied.

When Siegbert Witkowski retired in 1993, the first reorientation of the research program began. The laser plasma work with the high-performance Asterix laser, which was developed and set up in the initial phase of the project group, has been brought to a close. Finally, the laser was dismantled in 1997 and at the end of 1998 it was transferred to the Institute for Plasma Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague , where it has been operating ever since. The “Laser Plasmas” working group under the leadership of Klaus-Jürgen Witte and Jürgen Meyer-ter-Vehn continued other work on light-plasma interaction until 2004.

With the appointment of Gerhard Rempe (then University of Konstanz ) as the new director at the MPQ, the “Quantum Dynamics” department was founded in 1999. In 2001 the “Gravitational Waves” project group moved to Hanover, where the first test measurements on the experiment were carried out. Since then it has belonged to the MPI for Gravitational Physics (Potsdam), which was founded in 1995 . In the same year (2001) Ignacio Cirac (then University of Innsbruck) was appointed director at the MPQ and established a “theory” department for the first time.

At the beginning of 2003 Herbert Walther retired, but continued his research until his death in July 2006 as head of the emeritus group “Laserphysics”. His successor as director at the MPQ and full professor at the LMU was Ferenc Krausz (then Technical University of Vienna ), who has headed the “Attosecond Physics” department at the MPQ since 2003. In 2006 Karl-Ludwig Kompa retired. All of the founding fathers of the institute had thus retired.

Parallel to the retirement, not only three new departments were established, but independent research groups were also funded: In 2004, the groups "Quantum Simulations with Trapped Ions" were established with Tobias Schätz (now: University of Freiburg) as head and "Attosecond Driver Laser", whose head Andrius Baltuska accepted a position at the Vienna University of Technology in 2006. In 2005, Tobias Kippenberg (now: ETH Lausanne ) began setting up his junior research group “Laboratory of Photonics” at the MPQ. In July 2006 Reinhard Kienberger (now: Technical University of Munich ) received the funds for the establishment of another junior research group "Attosecond Dynamics". In January 2007 the junior research group “Attosecond Imaging” from Matthias Kling joined them. In January 2008 Masaki Hori started to set up the group "Antimatter Spectroscopy", followed in April 2008 by the group "Ultrafast Quantum Optics" by Peter Hommelhoff (now: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg ). Since 2011 Elefterios Goulielmakis has been building the "Attoelectronics" research group, financed by funds from the European Research Council . At the end of 2011, Dr. Randolf Pohl with the establishment of the research group "Muonic Atoms".

A special highlight was the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2005 to Theodor Hänsch for the development of frequency comb technology . It is not least thanks to this award that Hänsch will continue to work at LMU and MPQ until 2016. On the one hand, the Carl Friedrich von Siemens professorship was established for him at LMU. On the other hand, the Excellence Foundation established in 2006 to promote the Max Planck Society is making a special amount available for his research at the MPQ.

On August 1st, 2008 the MPQ was expanded to include a fifth department, "Quantum Many-Body Systems" by Immanuel Bloch . One of Immanuel Bloch's areas of work is the investigation of ultra-cold quantum gases in artificial crystals made of light, so-called optical grids . Such systems can model the behavior of solids and thus help to better understand properties such as conductivity or superconductivity .

International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS)

The MPI for Quantum Optics is involved in the International Max Planck Research School of Advanced Photon Science . Further cooperation partners are the LMU Munich , the TU Munich and the Technical University of Vienna. An IMPRS is an English-language doctoral program that enables a structured doctorate. The spokesman for the IMPRS is Ferenc Krausz , who is also director at the MPI for Quantum Optics.

External Scientific Members

External scientific members of the institute are (as of 2015): Marlan Scully , Raphael David Levine and Peter Zoller .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The history of the MPQ - The Founding Years ( Memento from February 27, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ The History of the MPQ - The MPQ in Transition ( Memento from February 27, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ The history of the MPQ - Generation change at the MPQ ( Memento from February 27, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ The history of the MPQ - current developments ( Memento from February 27, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ see homepage of the IMPRS-APS
  6. ↑ see page of the institute about this under https://www.mpq.mpg.de/4937538/external

Coordinates: 48 ° 15 ′ 34 ″  N , 11 ° 40 ′ 0 ″  E