Quantum Photon Science

The QPS group uses PSI’s large-scale facilities to study coherently driven quantum many-body states and to engineer novel nanostructured devices. Our activities nucleate at the QPS Optics Lab and the SwissFEL Cristallina-Q Experimental Station, where we set the ground for low-temperature spectroscopy and scattering experiments.

We are part of the Max Planck-Korea-PSI Center for Quantum Emergent Spintronics (KOMQUEST), an international research initiative to lay the foundation for next-generation memory, storage, and computing architectures.

QPS Group Photo
KOMQUEST
•Zukunftstechnologien
•9 min

Eröffnung des Max Planck-Korea-PSI Center for Quantum Emergent Spintronics

Quantenforschung
Materialforschung

Eine internationale Forschungskooperation, die führende Einrichtungen aus Deutschland, Korea und der Schweiz vereint, um die Grenzen der Quanten-Spintronik zu erweitern

Kelvin teaser
•1 min

Kelvin: Die Skala der Kälte

Verschiedenes

Null Kelvin – das ist der absolute Temperatur-Nullpunkt. Denn Wärme ist Energie, Kälte bedeutet weniger Energie, doch es kann niemals negative Energie geben. In der uns geläufigen Temperaturskala ausgedrückt liegen null Kelvin bei –273,15 Grad Celsius: Nichts kann kälter werden als das. Einige Forschende am PSI führen Tieftemperatur-Experimente nahe diesem Nullpunkt durch; andere tüfteln an technischen Möglichkeiten, um die Temperatur möglichst effizient zu senken.

5232 Hero Duett des Terbiums
•Zukunftstechnologien
•9 min

Duett des Terbiums und andere Quantenkunst

Quantenforschung

Um stabilere Qubits zu schaffen, lassen PSI-Forschende Terbiumionen paarweise auftreten. Anderswo platzieren sie mit Lichtpinzetten Atome hochgenau.

The Quantum Revolution: What's Next?
•Zukunftstechnologien
•8 min

The Quantum Revolution: What's Next?

Quantenforschung

A century on from the birth of quantum mechanics, 2025 marks the UNESCO International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. What does the future hold? Our experts share their opinions.

QML retreat 2023
•Future Technologies

"Quantum Magnet Lunch" retreat in Seelisberg

Quantum research

Our "Quantum Magnet Lunch" team - consisting of the QPS group, as well as, Markus Müller's team and Gabriel Aeppli - met for a two-day retreat to review our ongoing research and set the agenda for the coming year.

fluorescence figure
•7 min

Quality control of future transistors: Tackling the challenge of looking at atoms buried in silicon without moving them

Tackling the challenge of looking at atoms buried in silicon without moving them

QML Retreat 2022 Weggis
•Future Technologies

"Quantum Magnet Lunch" retreat in Weggis

Quantum research

Our so-called "Quantum Magnet Lunch" team - consisting of the larger QPS group, as well as, Gabriel Aeppli and Markus Müller - has organised a two-day retreat to review our ongoing projects. The goal of the event was to fly above the details of our daily routine and to revisit our overall vision.

CH-F Pulsed Magnet Retreat
•Fundamentals of Nature

Swiss-French pulsed magnetic field retreat

SwissFEL Materials research Quantum research

The Cristallina-Q team has welcomed French high-field experts at SwissFEL for an informal 2-day retreat. The ten participants  discussed which technical capabilities of the UZH-PSI pulsed magnet setup should be further developed and which science cases targeted in the upcoming commissioning and pilot experiment phase.

Cristallina 1st light
•Large research facilities

SwissFEL Cristallina "first light" milestone achieved

SwissFEL

First X-rays have reached the SwissFEL Cristallina experimental station on 14.03.2021 which is one day ahead of schedule. The achievement of this important milestone marks the beginning of the commissioning phase of the Cristallina project.

Reiche, Aeppli and Gerber
•Large research facilities
•7 min

Opening the door to X-ray quantum optics

The 'perfect' X-ray beam-splitter: Researchers at SwissFEL have an ingenious solution to produce coherent copies of pulses, facilitating a realm of new X-ray techniques.

Cat Qubit 2
•Future Technologies

Scientists develop a new kind of qubit based on the concept of Schrödinger’s cat

Nanotechnology Quantum research

Scientists in the Applied Physics department of Yale University – one of the leading authors, Alexander Grimm, has in the meantime relocated to PSI – have developed a new device that combines the Schrödinger’s cat concept of superposition (a physical system existing in two states at once) with the ability to fix some of the trickiest errors in a quantum computation.

adrian_fig3
•Fundamentals of Nature

Efficient analysis method for multiplet lines in Fourier space

In his first paper as lead author, LMN PhD student Adrian Beckert and co-authors demonstrate an algorithm which takes advantage of peak multiplicity to retrieve line shape information. The results were published in Optics Express and are relevant to a wide range of topics, ranging from neutron-scattering to spectroscopy of rare-earth doped solids.

Cryo Stand
•Large research facilities

Diffractometer stand built in collaboration with local SME

SwissFEL Industry Relations

A light-weight, low-vibration diffractometer stand has been designed and produced in close collaboration with the local supplier Heinz Baumgartner AG. This component will be used in conjunction with a cryomagnet system to study quantum matter at the SwissFEL Bernina and Cristallina-Q endstations.

LaserImage
•Future Technologies

First demonstration of a Germanium laser

Materials research Nanotechnology Quantum research

Scientist at the Paul Scherrer Institut and ETH Zürich, with colleagues from CEA Grenoble, have demonstrated and characterized a technology that, for the first time, yields lasing from strained elemental Germanium. This achievement underlines PSI’s leading role in the development of Silicon-compatible laser light sources.

teaserbild.jpg

Scientists get first direct look at how electrons ‘dance’ with vibrating atoms

Scientists at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University - one of the leading authors, Simon Gerber, has in the meantime relocated to PSI - have made the first direct measurements, and by far the most precise ones, of how electrons move in sync with atomic vibrations rippling through an quantum material, in the present study an unconventional superconductor, as if they were “dancing" to the same beat.

teaser picture
•Zukunftstechnologien
•12 min

Forschungserfahrung aus Kalifornien kommt Schweizer Röntgenlaser SwissFEL zugute

SwissFEL

Ein Freie-Elektronen-Röntgenlaser (FEL) kann extrem schnelle Prozesse sichtbar machen. Ende 2017 werden die ersten Pilotexperimente am Schweizer Freie-Elektronen-Röntgenlaser SwissFEL am Paul Scherrer Institut PSI stattfinden. Zwei aktuelle Publikationen in Science und Nature Communications zeigen, welch herausragende Wissenschaft an einer solchen Anlage möglich ist. Die Arbeiten wurden am Röntgenlaser LCLS in Kalifornien durchgeführt. Mittlerweile sind zwei der führenden Autoren als Wissenschaftler ans PSI übergesiedelt, um ihre Erfahrung beim Ausbau des SwissFEL einzubringen.

SwissFEL Cristallina-Q
QPS Optics Lab
Quantum Technologies Collaboration at PSI (QTC@PSI)
Max Planck-Korea-PSI Center for Quantum Emergent Spintronics (KOMQUEST)