Dr. Simon Gerber

Simon Gerber is a tenured scientist and head of the Quantum Photon Science Group within the Center for Photon Science of the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI). His degrees are from ETH Zurich and include a BSc in Physics , a MSc in Physics with distinction, as well as a Dr. Sc. for experimental work at the Department of Physics of ETH Zurich and the Laboratory for Neutron Scattering of PSI. During his PhD he investigated the interplay of unconventional superconductivity and magnetism in the vicinity of quantum criticality, primarily using low-temperature, high-magnetic field neutron scattering techniques. As a postdoctoral fellow he worked at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, focusing on ultrafast and single-shot experiments of quantum materials at X-ray free-electron lasers. His honours include a Fellowship of the Swiss Study Foundation, a Fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss Neutronics Young Scientist Prize of the Swiss Neutron Scattering Society, and the IBM Award in Condensed Matter Physics of the Swiss Physical Society.

Since his return to PSI as a tenure-track scientist in 2016, Simon Gerber engages in efforts to exploit PSI's accelerator-based photon sources, in particular the SwissFEL X-ray free-electron laser, to image coherent control of quantum many-body systems. Since 2019 he acts as ad interim and since 2021 as permanent head of the Quantum Photon Science Group, which includes supervision of PhD students and postdocs, as well as line management of the QPS optics laboratory and SwissFEL Cristallina, where he leads the Cristallina Quantum sub-project. The latter activity also involves the build-up of bespoke low-temperature, high-magnetic field sample environments and the development of new measurement schemes, which make use of the unique properties of SwissFEL's ultrashort X-ray pulses. He is a board member of PSI's Research Initiative Quantum Technologies Collaboration (QTC@PSI).

Simon Gerber's scientific research is focused on quantum many-body phenomena in condensed matter. This includes topics of fundamental solid-state physics, such as the interplay of unconventional superconductivity and magnetism in quantum critical regimes, or charge order in quantum materials. In addition, he also uses pulsed photon sources to study the non-equilibrium dynamics of correlated electron systems, van der Waals materials and devices, as well as coherent control of  solid-state qubit host materials.

For an extensive overview we kindly refer you to our publication repository DORA and the profiles on ResearcherID and Google Scholar. An asterisk (*) indicates equal contribution.

A perfect X-ray beam splitter and its applications to time-domain interferometry and quantum optics exploiting free-electron lasers
S. Reiche, G. Knopp, B. Pedrini, E. Prat, G. Aeppli, S. Gerber
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 119, e2117906119 (2022).

Nonthermal pathways to ultrafast control in quantum materials
A. de la Torre,* D. M. Kennes,* M. Claassen,* S. Gerber,* J. W. McIver,* M. A. Sentef*
Rev. Mod. Phys. 93, 041002 (2021).

Femtosecond electron-phonon lock-in by photoemission and x-ray free-electron laser
S. Gerber,* S.-L. Yang,* D. Zhu, H. Soifer, J. A. Sobota, S. Rebec, J. J. Lee, T. Jia, B. Moritz, C. Jia, A. Gauthier, Y. Li, D. Leuenberger, Y. Zhang, L. Chaix, W. Li, H. Jang, J.-S. Lee, M. Yi, G. L. Dakovski, S. Song, J. M. Glownia, S. Nelson, K. W. Kim, Y.-D. Chuang, Z. Hussain, R. G. Moore, T. P. Devereaux, W.-S. Lee, P. S. Kirchmann, Z.-X. Shen
Science 357, 71 (2017).

Three-dimensional charge density wave order in YBa₂Cu₃O_6.67 at high magnetic fields
S. Gerber,* H. Jang,* H. Nojiri, S. Matsuzawa, H. Yasumura, D. A. Bonn, R. Liang, W. N. Hardy, Z. Islam, A. Mehta, S. Song, M. Sikorski, D. Stefanescu, Y. Feng, S. A. Kivelson, T. P. Devereaux, Z.-X. Shen, C.-C. Kao, W.-S. Lee, D. Zhu, J.-S. Lee
Science 350, 949 (2015).

Switching of magnetic domains reveals spatially inhomogeneous superconductivity
S. Gerber, M. Bartkowiak, J. L. Gavilano, E. Ressouche, N. Egetenmeyer, C. Niedermayer, A. D. Bianchi, R. Movshovich, E. D. Bauer, J. D. Thompson, M. Kenzelmann
Nat. Phys. 10, 126 (2014).