News & Events 2015-2018
Please note: Some of the following content may be in a different language.
3.12.2018
Writing in Nature Physics, the ETH physics groups of Jérôme Faist, Thomas Ihn and Klaus Ensslin report magneto-transport measurements of polaritons, revealing the important role of the electronic component in these light–matter hybrid excitations.
3.12.2018
Markus Parzefall, postdoc in the Novotny group, wins the second prize in the categoriy Natural and Technical Sciences of the Deutscher Studienpreis 2018 / Körbre Stiftung with his contribution "Die kleinste Lichtquelle der Welt".
Congratulations !
external pageKörber Stiftung
external pageDeutscher Studienpreis
3.12.2018
Congratulations to Christian Degen and Jonathan Home both for receiving an ERC Consollidator grant. Their projects are entitled "Non-Invasive Imaging of Nanoscale Electronic Transport" and "Trapped-ion quantum information in 2-dimensional Penning trap arrays", respectively.
17.11.2018
Jonathan Home receives the golden owl at the 2018 ETH Day. The Golden Owl honours lecturers who have provided exceptional teaching and motivates them to continue with their excellent teaching. The Owl is awarded by the VSETH, ETH Zurich’s students association, who are also the initiators of the award.
ETH News
Awards and prizes at ETH Day 2018
Golden Owl of the VSETH
17.11.2018
At today's ETH Day, Sebastian Krinner from the Wallraff group receives the Lopez-Loreta Prize for his project with the aim of constructing quantum bits (Qubits) for future quantum computers based on superconducting circuits in order to reduce the susceptibility of quantum states to errors.
Donated by the Fondation Jean-Jacques et Felicia Lopez-Loreta, the prize honors outstanding ETH graduates and enables them to carry out their groundbreaking research or innovation projects.
ETH News
Awards and prizes at ETH Day 2018
external pagephys.org
external pagePhotonics Online
9.11.2018
"Quantum physics is the hope of research." — A contribution in the program 'Rendez-vous' by SRF radio on the participation of Swiss research groups in the Quantum Flagship. With a visit to the laboratory of Philipp Treutlein (Uni Basel).
6.11.2018
In an interview with Physics World on occasion of the Quantum Flagship launch event in Vienna, three senior figures in the area of quantum communication — including Rob Thew (University of Geneva) — share their views on future directions in the field.
5.11.2018
"In a few years at most, I expect the computing power of quantum computers to significantly outstrip the computing power of ordinary computers. We call that ‘quantum supremacy", says Nicolas Sangouard (Uni Basel). He and his research team have developed a protocol for checking that quantum computer components function as they should. That’s a critical step in making the promise of quantum computing a reality.
external pageSNF
external pageSwiss IT Magazine
external pagePhys.org
external pageInnovations report
external pagePresseportal.ch
30.10.2018
The Quantum Flagship project ORANGE will be coordinated by Hugo Zbinden (University of Geneva). The purpose of the project is to develop cheaper, faster, and more secure quantum random number generators.
external pageqt.eu
external pageExpatica
external pageswissinfo.ch
29.10.2018
EU has announced the 20 projects (out of 140 proposals) that have been successfully selected for the Quantum Flagship. Among them are projects from the areas of quantum computing, quantum simulations, quantum sensors and quantum random number generation involving the ETH researchers Christian Degen, Jérôme Faist, Jonathan Home, Matthias Troyer and Andreas Wallraff, the Uni Basel researchers Philipp Treutlein, Patrick Maletinsky and Nicolas Sangouard, and the researchers Nicolas Brunner, Mikael Afzelius, Rob Thew and Hugo Zbinden at University of Geneva.
external pageqt.eu
ETH News
external pageUni Basel News
external pageUniversity of Geneva Press Release
external pageNZZ
external pageRTS Info
external pageBlick
external pageCorriere del Ticino
29.10.2018
New Masters Program in Quantum Engineering, starting in Autumn 2019 - detailed information and important information for applicants can now be found on-line.
Master Quantum Engineering - application information
Homepage Masters in Quantum Engineering
25.10.2018
Jelena Klinovaja has been promoted to Associate Professor in Physics at the University of Basel.
24.10.2018
Jonathan Home receives the 2019 Rolf Landauer and Charles H. Bennett Award in Quantum Computing "For the development and demonstration of trapped-ion quantum computing protocols, including Bell state stabilization by feedback control in mixed-ion chains, and the encoding of logical quantum states in the ion motion."
This award recognizes recent outstanding contributions in quantum information science, especially using quantum effects to perform computational and information-management tasks that would be impossible or infeasible by purely classical means.
CONGRATULATIONS!
external pageAPS communication
18.10.2018
The Morpurgo group found a family of finite-temperature electronic phase transitions in graphene multilayers, defying the intuition that increasingly thicker graphene multilayers start to behave like graphite.
external pageScience
18.10.2018
Tilman Esslinger comments in NZZ on the first realisation of a Bose-Einstein condensate in space, published in Nature by german physicists.
external pageNZZ
10.10.2018
A film about women in science, directed by Lucas Güniat (Anna Fontcuberta i Morral's group) and Fanny Borza for the EPFL WISH Foundation, was presented during the Erna Hamburger Prize ceremony 8.10.2018.
1.10.2018
Erik Hebestreit, his PhD adviser Lukas Novotny, and their colleagues at ETH Zürich have shrunk the apple drop to the nanoscale regime. By levitating a silica nanoparticle in an optical trap, and briefly releasing it, they can measure the effect of gravity or any other static force that acts on the particle.
external pagePhysics Today, Johanna L. Miller reviewing the research article
external pagePhys. Rev Letters, research article
28.09.2018
ETH Zurich has appointed Dr. Yiwen Chu, currently a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University, New Haven, USA, as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Hybrid Quantum Systems. Yiwen Chu’s research focuses on exploring new materials, designs and geometries for developing superconducting qubits and cavities. Her research is an excellent fit with the “Quantum Science and Technology” research group at ETH Zurich.
18.9.2018
Searching for errors in the quantum world: The theory of quantum mechanics is well supported by experiments. Now, however, a thought experiment by ETH physicists Renato Renner and his former doctoral student Daniela Frauchiger yields unexpected contradictions. These findings raise some fundamental questions – and they’re polarising experts.
external pageNature Communications
ETH News
external pageNZZ
external pageScientific American
external pageInnovations report
external pageForbes
external pagewelt der physik
external pageTagesanzeiger
external pageDer Bund
ITS Science Colloquium
external pageQuanta Magazine
external pageNew Scientist
17.09.2018
Frauenmangel in MINT-Fächern – Physikerin werden ist schwieriger als Physiker
Märta Tschudin, master thesis student in Patrick Maletinsky's group is featured in a reportage of the Swiss Radio and Television.
external pageSRF (in German)
13.09.2018
A new technique makes it possible to obtain an individual fingerprint of the current-carrying edge states occurring in novel materials such as topological insulators or 2D materials. Physicists from Dominik Zumbühl's group present the new method together with American scientists in “Nature Communications.”
external pageNature Communication
external pageUni Basel News
02.09.2018
QuID quantum computing summer school and hackathon at ETH Zurich from 11 to 14 September 2018 - registration open
QuID
29.08.2018
As of 1 August 2018, Prof. Vanessa Wood has taken over the Electronics Laboratory from Prof. Gerhard Tröster.
D-ITET News
IfE - Electronics Laboratory
and Materials and Device Engineering Group
29.08.2018
ID Quantique and QSIT mentioned in Le Temps: The quantum computer will soon revolutionize the world. Problem: the skilled workforce - developers, technicians and other project managers - remains a rare commodity, while more companies, from GAFA to start-ups, are investing in the field.
external pageLe Temps (in french)
27.08.2018
Physicists from the groups of Dominik Zumbühl and Daniel Loss at the University of Basel, in collaboration with researchers from Japan, Slovakia and the US, have observed new mechanism of electron spin relaxation.
external pageNature Communications
external pageUni Basel News
external pageChemie.de
23.08.2018
News & Views article in Nature by Matthias Troyer, providing background and context on new work in which D-Wave Systems researchers report the observation of topological phenomena in a programmable lattice of 1,800 qubits.
external pageNature News & Views
21.08.2018
What will quantum computer games be like?
Interview with James Wootton in Gizmodo
external pageGizmodo
17.08.2018
Leading researchers have published a roadmap for the development of quantum technologies in Europe. Rob Thew co-authored the section on quantum communication & explains why a coherent vision for the future is essential for quantum technologies to flourish in Europe.
17.8.2018
Daniel Kienzler from Jonathan's Home group at ETH wins a SNSF Ambizione grant. His project is entitled "High-level control and spectroscopy of single trapped molecular ions".
CONGRATULATIONS!
10.08.2018
In a Science magazine review article, Tobias Kippenberg from EPFL and colleagues at Columbia, review the development of microresonator-generated frequency combs and discuss their role in precision technology.
7.8.2018
As they report in Nature Physics, the group of Patrick Maletinsky from Uni Basel establishes the driving-field phase under closed-contour-interaction driving as a novel control parameter for coherent manipulation and dynamical decoupling of single spins.
external pageNature Physics
external pageUni Basel News
30.7.2018
Alexandre Roulet and Christoph Bruder from Uni Basel explore the fundamental question of how big the minimal elementary unit in a large network of quantum oscillators has to be such that the system can be synchronized.
external pagePhysical Review Letters
29.7.2018
In theoretical work recently published in Phys Rev B, Marcel Serina, Daniel Loss and Jelena Klinovaja from Uni Basel show that the boundary charge and spin can be used as alternative signatures of the topological phase transition in topological models.
external pagePhysical Review B
26.7.2018
The ETH groups of Thomas Ihn, Klaus Ensslin, and of Manfred Sigrist working with colleagues at NIMS, report electrostatic confinement of single charge carriers in bilayer graphene, a step toward spin and valley qubits in graphene-based devices.
external pagePhysical Review X
26.7.2018
To make qubits for quantum computers less susceptible to noise, the spin of an electron or some other particle is preferentially used. Researchers from the four QSIT groups Ensslin, Ihn, Wallraff, and Wegscheider, have now developed a method that makes it possible to couple such a spin qubit strongly to microwave photons.
external pageNature
ETH News
external pageComputerworld
external pageInnovations report
24.7.2018
ETH physicists from Lukas Novotny's group have made a nanoparticle turn around its own axis a billion times per second. From such measurements of rotating particles, the scientists hope to obtain new insights into the behaviour of materials under extreme stress.
external pagePhysical Review Letters
ETH News
external pagePhysics world
23.7.2018
Ytterbium: the quantum memory of tomorrow. Nicolas Gisin, Mikael Afzelius and their collaborators from UNIGE, working closely with CNRS (France), have discovered a new material that can be used to store and repeat the quantum signal rapidly – could this be the beginning of a global quantum network?
external pageNature Materials 17, 671–675 (2018)
Unigeneva press relase, external pageEnglish, external pageFrench version
22.6.2018
Swiss researchers are building a quantum Internet: In order for quantum communication to work over large distances, it needs repeaters and light storage. Swiss researchers are working on this. Horizons – the Swiss Reasearch Magazine by the SNSF features Hugo Zbinden, Mikael Afzelius, and Philipp Treutlein.
Horizons, June 2018, p 36, external pageonline
29.06.2018
An international team including two ETH physicists, G. Blatter and A. Lebedev, has demonstrated that algorithms and hardware developed originally in the context of quantum computation can be harnessed for quantum-enhanced sensing of magnetic fields.
external pagenpj Quantum Information 4, 29 (2018)
D-Phys news
21.6.2018
Globe – the magazine of ETH Zurich features a focused interview with Renato Renner, Andreas Wallraff and Matthias Troyer on the worldwide race to the quantum computer. The academic and industrial effort is tremendous as well as the challenges, risks and opportunities arising in this journey.
ETH Globe
14.6.2018
external pageQNAMI (start up emerging from the Maletinsky group) is one of the two winners of the full CHF130,000 at the latest Venture Kick final. QNAMI uses cutting-edge quantum technologies (and synthetic diamonds) to improve imaging techniques and diagnostics. Their quantum sensors allow companies in the electronics industry to perform more accurate failure analysis, a necessity for the development of the next magnetic memories generation.
external pageVenture Kick
14.6.2018
In the new quantum information technologies, fragile quantum states have to be transferred between distant quantum bits. Researchers from Andreas Wallraff's gorup have now realized such a quantum transmission between two solid-state qubits at the push of a button.
ETH News
external pageNature 558, 264 (2018)
CSF Award
external pageIDW - Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
6.6.2018
All employees of the Department of Physics are invited to the traditional Department Day. This year the dedicated talks were in given by Renato Renner and Karan Kartik Mehta (Home group) on the topic 'Die zweite Quantenrevolution'.
D-Phys News
6.6.2018
Recording the birth and death of a phonon — In a PRL paper a team involving Nicolas Sangouard (Uni Basel) and Christophe Galland (EPFL) reports two-colour pump-probe measurements of photonic quantum correlations mediated by a single phonon.
external pagePhys. Rev. Lett.120, 233601, 5.6.2018
external pageUni Basel Phys. Dept. News
external pageEPFL News
external pagePhys. org
31.05.2018
Interview with Bettina Heim (group of Matthias Troyer): «What fascinates me about Quantum computing is the fact that I can advance into unknown territory.»
ETH Alumni
25.5.2018
James Wootton has recently released a new app, that was made in collaboration with IBM Research (in Yorktown).
It is a simple puzzle game, but it let's people play with a few quantum gates on two qubits.
external pagehttp://helloquantum.mybluemix.net/#
23.5.2018
The group of Jérôme Faist has developed a quantum cascade laser that can be used to visualise weak infrared signals from space. It is now being put to use on a flight of the world’s largest airborne observatory.
ETH News
14.5.2018
A Nature editorial covers the Big Bell Test experiment on testing the freedom of choice in quantum physics to which Andreas Wallraff's goup has contributed. Interestingly, not only the experiment was crowdsourced but also the review process.
external pageNature
ETH News
13.5.2018
Die Computer-Revolution lässt auf sich warten
Article in the NZZ am Sonntag (in German), by Martin Vogel
NZZ aS, p. 55, 13.5.2018
external pageLink for registered users
27.4.2018
If you want to understand quantum computers, you should play with them. Quantum computers are a big mystery for many people. Quantum physicist James Wootton of the University of Basel wants to change that. That's why he's developing games for quantum computers.
external pageNZZ
26.4.2018
Physicists from Philipp Treutlein's group have observed the quantum mechanical Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox in a system of several hundred interacting atoms for the first time. The phenomenon dates back to a famous thought experiment from 1935. It allows measurement results to be predicted precisely and could be used in new types of sensors and imaging methods for electromagnetic fields. The findings were recently published in the journal Science.
external pageScience article
external pageUni Basel news
external pageInformationsdienst Wissenschaft
11.4.2018
Information processing requires a lot of energy. Energy-saving computer systems could make computing more efficient, but the efficiency of these systems can’t be increased indefinitely, as ETH physicists from Renato Renner's group show.
external pagePhys. Rev. X 8, 021011, 2018
ETH News
external pageInnovations report
external pagemessanger.ch
8.4.2018
Christa Flühmann and her colleagues from Jonathan Home's group try to push the limits of the Heisenberg uncertainity principle.
external pagePhys Rev X
external pageAaargauer Zeitung
04.04.2018
Congratulation to Christian Schönenberger on receiving, for his project "Engineered Topological Superconductivity in van der Waals Heterostructures"- TopSupra, one of the prestigious ERC Advanced Grants 2017.
external pageERC Advanced Grants 2017
external pageUniversity of Basel
external pageTageswoche
20.3.2018
Nicolas Gisin cited in 'Verdammt seltsam', an articel in external pageTechnology Review at Heise.de, in German.
17.3.2018
Congratulation to Vanessa Wood, who has been named a 2018 Materials_MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award.
D-ITET News
external pageMRS Award
2.3.2018
Plants can convert sunlight into chemical energy with a high degree of efficiency. How this is achieved is still not entirely clear. ETH physicists from Andreas Wallraff's group have now constructed a quantum physical model that aims to answer this question.
external pageNature Communications
ETH News
27.2.2018
An international collaboration led by ETH physicists has used machine learning to teach a computer how to predict the outcomes of quantum experiments. The results could prove to be essential for testing future quantum computers.
ETH News
external pageNature Physics
external pageComputerworld
26.2.2018
ID Quantique announced today a strategic investment plan of US$ 65 million from SK Telecom, intended to develop IDQ’s quantum technologies for the telecom and IoT markets.
As the first South Korean conglomerate to establish a quantum technology laboratory in 2011, SK Telecom has continuously invested in the development of quantum cryptography for wireless communications networks. IDQ has had a long term relationship with SK Telecom. In 2017 SK Telecom developed the world’s smallest (5x5mm) Quantum Random Number Generator based on technology and know-how licensed from IDQ. As part of the transaction, SK Telecom’s quantum laboratory will become part of IDQ.
external pageID Quantique press release
external pageSK Telecom press release
external pageNZZ article
19.2.2018
Tobias Kippenberg receives the Zeiss research award 2018. The award recognizes outstanding achievements in the field of international research.
external pageZEiSS press release
external pageSchwäbische Post
26.1.2018
In the field of Quantum Technologies th University of Basel seeks cooperations in the Upper-Rhine region.
external pagebz Basel 24.1.2018
external pagebz Basel 25.1.2018
24.1.2018
Experiments based on atoms in a shaken artificial crystal made of light offer novel insight into the physics of quantum many-body systems — which might help in the development of future data-storage technologies. The experiments were perfomed in Tilman Esslinger's group.
external pageNature 553, 481 (Jan 2018)
D-Phys News
23.1.2018
We would like to congratulate Jérôme Faist, Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Tobias Kippenberg, Hugo Zbinden and Nicolas Brunner for winning 4 of the 8 BRIDGE Discovery awards. SNSF and Innosuisse will support these projects, distinguished by scientific excellence, a convincing implementation strategy and with an high economic or social potential.
external pageBRIDGE: First Discovery projects set to go
external pageBRIDGE Discovery
23.1.2018
Physicists from Richard Warburton's group have developed a technique based on optical microscopy that can be used to create images of atoms on the nanoscale. In particular, the new method allows the imaging of quantum dots in a semiconductor chip. Together with colleagues from the University of Bochum, they reported the findings in the journal Nature Photonics.
external pageNature Photonics
external pageUNI Basel News
external pageBlick.ch
external pageScience daily
external pageidw
external pageVaterland.li
external pageChemie.de
22.1.2018
The brisky qstarter awards featured 11 impressive projects and start-up ideas. We congratule the winners of this year
Damian Steiger and Thomas Häner for external pageProjectQ
Mathieu Munsch for external pageQnami
Lidia del Rio for Quantum Journal qstarter awards by QSIT
16.01.2018
Andreas Fuhrer would like to promote 4 new IBM awards on the subject "Quantum Computing: The IBM Q Awards are a series of prizes for professors, lecturers and students who use the IBM Q Experience and QISKit in the classroom or for their research. The program consists of four separate contests, see external pagehttps://qx-awards.mybluemix.net
15.01.2018
Quantum physics turned into tangible reality: Researchers from Sebastian Huber's group have developed a silicon wafer that behaves like a topological insulator when stimulated using ultrasound. They have thereby succeeded in turning an abstract theoretical concept into a macroscopic product.
external pageNature 2018
external pageNature materials 2018
ETH News
5.1.2018
A look into the fourth dimension: In our daily experience space has three dimensions. Recently, however, a physical phenomenon that only occurs in four spatial dimensions could be observed in two experiments. The theoretical groundwork for those experiments was laid by Oded Zilberberg.
external pageNature 553, 55–58, (2018) and
external pageNature 553, 59–62, (2018)
ETH News
external pagePhysicsWorld.com
external pageChemie.de
external pageInternational Business Times
27.12.2017
Portrait of Daniel Loss in the external pageTagesWoche.
18.12.2017
Real-time observation of collective quantum modes: When symmetries in quantum systems are spontaneously broken, the collective excitation modes change in characteristic ways. Researchers from Tilman Esslinger's group have now directly observed such Goldstone and Higgs modes for the first time.
external pageScience Vol 358, p. 1415
ETH News
12.12.2017
Renato Renner receives the ALEA Award, which was launched this year by AVETH with support from the Equal! Office of Equal Opportunities and HR. The award, which succeeds the previous Golden Tricycle award, honours leaders who facilitate modern and innovative working conditions, and who promote and actively support combining a career with having a family and taking on commitments outside of work.
Professor Renato Renner, Head of the Quantum Information Theory group in the Department of Physics, prevailed against 36 other nominees and received the award on stage.
ETH internal news
external pageAward Video
21.11.2017
Lucas Güniat, PhD student in Anna Fontcuberta's group,won the EPFL contest 'my thesis in 180 s'.
external pagehttps://actu.epfl.ch/news/how-to-make-straight-nanowires-in-three-minutes/
14.11.2017
UNI NOVA – Research Magazine of the University of Basel – introduces approaches to quantum computing and describes the work that researchers at Basel University are conducting through a combination of theoretical ideas and ingenious experiments.
external pageUNI NOVA
13.10.2017
At its Dies Academicus the University of Geneva awarded the Innovation Medal to ID Quantique represented by Nicolas Gisin, Grégoire Ribordy et Hugo Zbinden, co-founders and professors at the Science Faculty (N. Gisin et H. Zbinden) and CEO of ID Quantique (G. Ribordy).
external pageUNIGE, dies cademicus 2017
external pageMédaille de l’innovation
13.9.2017
For the first time, physicists have successfully imaged spiral magnetic ordering in a multiferroic material. These materials are considered highly promising candidates for future data storage media. The researchers were able to prove their findings using unique quantum sensors that were developed at Basel University and that can analyze electromagnetic fields on the nanometer scale. The results – obtained by scientists from the University of Basel’s Department of Physics (Patrick Maletinsky's group), the Swiss Nanoscience Institute, the University of Montpellier and several laboratories from University Paris-Saclay – were recently published in the journal Nature.
external pageNature article
external pageUni Basel News
external pageTagesanzeiger 9.8.2017
11.9.2017
Scientists from Patrick Maletinsky's and Richard Warburton's research groups have succeeded in dramatically improving the quality of individual photons generated by a quantum system. The scientists have successfully put a 10-year-old theoretical prediction into practice. With their paper, published recently in Physical Review X, they have taken an important step towards future applications in quantum information technology.
external pagePhys. Rev X 7, 031040 (2017)
external pageUni Basel News
external pageScience daily
7.9.2017
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded both professors Jelena Klinovaja and Ilaria Zardo from the Department of Physics at the University of Basel an ERC Starting Grant. The two physicists will receive up to 1.5 million Euros over the course of the next five years for their ambitious research projects. The ERC Starting Grants from the European Research Council (ERC) are the most renowned funding contributions for early career researchers in Europe. Through these grants, the ERC promotes innovative fundamental research and supports excellent and independent young researchers.
external pageUNI Basel News
7.9.2017
Physicists from Richard Warburton's and Philipp Treutlein's research groups have developed a memory that can store photons. These quantum particles travel at the speed of light and are thus suitable for high-speed data transfer. The researchers were able to store them in an atomic vapor and read them out again later without altering their quantum mechanical properties too much.
external pageUni Basel News
external pagePhys. Rev. Lett.(2017)
04.09.2017
What data reveal – Scientifica 2017: The NCCR QSIT was present with a booth entitled Licht – Quanten – Daten (light — quanta — data). That the visitors were during these three days so curious to learn about quantum mechanics came as a positive surprise to the researchers presenting at the event.
external pageScientifica 2017
external pageLicht – Quanten – Daten
D-Phys News
22.08.2017
Andrea Morales, PhD student in Tilman Esslinger's group, was awarded with the “Orso Mario Corbino”- prize of the Italian Physical Society.
external pageSIF
21.08.2017
Grégoire Ribordy envisions the future of quantum based cryptographie and describes the evolution of his company ID Quantique to become a market leader in this field. Read the full interview in the newspaper Tagesanzeiger.
ID Quantique, winner of several prestigious awards: Swiss Technology Award 2004, Prix de la Jeune Industrie 2009, Swiss ICT Award 2011 is the world leader in quantum-safe crypto solutions, designed to protect data for the long-term future. The company provides quantum-safe network encryption, secure quantum key generation and quantum key distribution solutions and services to the financial industry, enterprises and government organisations globally.
external pageTagesanzeiger 17.8.2017
external pageDer Bund
external pageID Quantique
16.08.2017
A solid basis for quantum simulation: A semiconductor device fabricated in the group of Werner Wegscheider has provided the basis for a quantum simulation of the so-called Fermi–Hubbard model, a key concept in condensed-matter physics. This advance towards experimentally exploring quantum many-body physics on a solid-state platform has been just been published in the journal Nature.
external pageNature
D-Phys News
16.08.2017
We are happy to announce that two INSPIRE Potentials – QSIT Master Internship Awards were granted to Stefania Balasiu (Master thesis in the Wallraff group) and Tianqi Zhu (Kippenberg/Galland).
CONGRATULATIONS !!
14.08.2017
"Er forscht am Computer von morgen"
ETH professor Jonathan Home describes a way towards future quantum computers and highlights the science of computing with atoms (Qubits) as processor in the newspaper Tagesanzeiger.
Matthias Troyer already showed how up to 200 qubits could exceeds performance of current classical computation for complex chemical reactions. An advanced quantum computer could feature 100000 qubits according to Jonathan Home.
external pageTagesanzeiger
external pageDer Bund
ETH News
09.08.2017
"Ohne die Schweiz geht es nicht"
Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger interviews Tommaso Calarco and highlights the key role of Switzerland in the quantum research in the perspective of the Quantum-Flagship. The 1 billion innitiative of the European Commission will start in 2018. QSIT and the start-ups: external pageID Quantique, external pageZurich Instruments, external pageQNAMI serve as examples how quantum technology will develope out of this.
external pageTagesanzeiger
The €1 billion quantum technologies flagship announced by the European Commission will provide this ambitious, coordinated and long-term strategy needed to support joint science, engineering and application work, including IPR, standardisation and market development.
external pageEuropean commisionexternal pageNature
31.07.2017
Science and the IT industry have high hopes for quantum computing, but descriptions of possible applications tend to be vague. A team of researchers led by ETH professors Markus Reiher and Matthias Troyer have now come up with a concrete example that demonstrates what quantum computers will actually be able to achieve in the future.
ETH News
external pagePNAS
18.7.2017
"L’EPFZ possède un prototype d’ordinateur quantique": Andreas Wallraff's Research Lab, combined with an interview of Nicolas Gisin, in the Swiss Television RTS at the main news.
external pageLe journal 19:30
14.07.2017
Researcher from Richard Warburton's and Martino Poggio's group have succeeded in coupling an extremely small quantum dot with 1,000 times larger trumpet-shaped nanowire. The movement of the nanowire can be detected with a sensitivity of 100 femtometers via the wavelength of the light emitted by the quantum dot. Conversely, the oscillation of the nanowire can be influenced by excitation of the quantum dot with a laser.
external pageNature Communication
external pageUni Basel News
external pageidw
external pageEurekalert
13.7.2017
New Video: Quantum at ETH Zurich - Enabler of the post digital era
on 12.7.17: external pageTwitter(D-PHYS), external pageTwitter(CmtQo)
on 13.7.17: external pageTwitter(QuDev), ETH global on facebook
on 03.8.17:external pageTwitter (Francesco Kienzle, Eureserch)
on 4.8.17: external pageTwitter (D-Phys ETH)
19.9.17: D-Phys News
30.6.2017
Sensitive sensors must be isolated from their environment as much as possible to avoid disturbances. Scientists from Lukas Novotny's group have now demonstrated how to remove from and add elementary charges to a nanosphere that can be used for measuring extremely weak forces.
ETH News
external pagePhysical Review A 2017, 95, 061801(R)
external pageChemie.de
27. - 29.06.2017
Jonathan Home, Sebastian Huber and Vanessa Wood represented ETH and Quantum Science and Technology in Switzerland at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions of the World Economics Forum, in Dalian, People's Republic of China in the session entitled "Enabling Emerging Technologies".
external pageWEF - The Global Summit on Innovation, Science & Technology
external pageWEF - Press Conference: Science Under Attack
Their contributions to the Ideas Lab are found here
external pageSimulating quantum mechanics for practical, real-world applications | Sebastian Huber
external pageRealizing a quantum computer | Jonathan Home
external pageImproving battery architecture through nanoparticle engineering | Vanessa Wood
June 2017
Frédéric Merkt and Tilman Esslinger are cited in an article on the occasion of 10 years of ERC grants, entitled: Confidence in basic research.
ETH Globe 2/2017, p34
29.5.2017
Accurate measurements of the frequencies of weak electric or magnetic fields are important in many applications. Researchers at ETH Zurich in Christian Degen's group have now developed a procedure whereby a quantum sensor measures the frequency of an oscillating magnetic field with unprecedented accuracy.
ETH News
external pageScience
17.5.2017
In a recent experiment in Tobias Kippenberg's group, a microwave resonator, a circuit that supports electric signals oscillating at a resonance frequency, is coupled to the vibrations of a metallic micro-drum. By actively cooling the mechanical motion close to the lowest energy allowed by quantum mechanics, the micro-drum can be turned into a quantum reservoir – an environment that can shape the states of the microwave.
external pageNature Physics,
external pageEPFL news,
external pagerdmag, external pagenanowerk, external pageeurekalert, external pagesciencenewsline, external pagephys.org
4.05.2017
Swiss Quantum Day / Bern
The Swiss Quantum Day aimed at preparing the Swiss stakeholders to the FET Flagship, gathering together near 100 participants from research, companies and government bodies active in thefield. The event informed on the Flagship initiative and showed Swiss research and innovation excellence. The interplay of national and European instruments was discussed with contributions from the European Commission, the UK and the Netherlands.
external pageEuresearch
external pageon Twitter
08.04.2017
The collaboration of three research groups, headed by Klaus Ensslin, Werner Wegscheider and Andreas Wallraff, led to the creation of a device that strongly couples quantum states of light and matter. This hybrid system opens up novel routes to combining the advantages of different quantum platforms — and to a host of possible applications, read more.
A. Stockklauser, P. Scarlino, J. V. Koski, S. Gasparinetti, C. K. Andersen, C. Reichl, W. Wegscheider, T. Ihn, K. Ensslin & A. Wallraff, Strong Coupling Cavity QED with Gate-Defined Double Quantum Dots Enabled by a High Impedance Resonator. external pagePhys. Rev. X 7, 011030 (2017).
Accompanying synopsis in external pageAPS Physics
28.3.2017
Two QSIT PIs have received two of the coveted Advanced Grants in the European Research Council's (ERC) latest call for proposals. For both scientists, this is their second such grant.
Tilman Esslinger is Professor of Quantum Optics at ETH Zurich. In his new project, he is examining elementary transport mechanisms in a system that obeys the laws of quantum physics.
Frédéric Merkt, Professor of Physical Chemistry, will use his ERC project to explore chemical reactions of charged atoms and molecules (ions) with molecules at extremely low temperatures, paying particular attention to quantum-physical effects.
ETH News
10.3.2017
Dr. Vadim Geshkenbein, currently Senior Scientist and Senior Lecturer at ETH Zurich, has been promoted to Adjunct Professor at ETH Zurich. Vadim Geshkenbein’s research focuses on statistical physics, superconductors and quantum systems. In 2001 his work in the field of vortex matter earned him the ETH Zurich Latsis Prize.
ETH News
10.3.2017
Christian Degen, currently Tenure Track Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Spin Physics. Christian Degen has received worldwide recognition for his research findings on weak magnetic signals in biological and inorganic systems. In 2013 he received an ERC Starting Grant. Christian Degen’s current objective at ETH Zurich is to combine magnetic resonance with atomic force microscopy.
ETH News
9.3.2017
Artificial magnetic fields for photons: Light particles do not usually react to magnetic fields. Researchers from Ataç Imamoğlu's research group have now shown how photons can still be influenced by electric and magnetic fields. In the future that method could be used to create strong artificial magnetic fields for photons.
external pageNature Communication
ETH News
2.3.2017
When matter is cooled to near absolute zero, intriguing phenomena emerge. These include supersolidity, where crystalline structure and frictionless flow occur together. ETH physicists from Tilmann Esslinger's group have succeeded in realising this strange state experimentally for the first time.
external pageNature 543, 87 (2017)
ETH News
external pageNZZ
external pageFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
external pageChemie.de
external pageSpektrum der Wissenschaft
external pagePhys.org
15.2.2017
Patrick Maletinsky holds the Georg-H.-Endress-position as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Basel since February 2012. He has been promoted by the university council to associate professor effective February 1st, 2017.
external pageUniversity of Basel
14.2.2017
Theoretical physicists from Sebastian Huber's group deliberately misled intelligent machines, and thus refined the process of machine learning. They created a new method that allows computers to categorise data – even when humans have no idea what this categorisation might look like.
ETH News
external pageNature Physics
10.2.2017
Quantum systems consisting of many particles are a major challenge for physicists, since their behaviour can be determined only with immense computational power. ETH physicists from Matthias Troyer's group have now discovered an elegant way to simplify the problem.
ETH News
external pageScience article
7.2.2017
Christa Flühmann (Jonathan Home's group) and Anton Potocnik (Andreas Wallraff's group) won the two poster prizes at the
635th WE-Heraeus Seminar: Scalable Architectures for Quantum Simulation, 29 January – 2 February 2017, Bad Honnef, Germany external pagelink
CONGRATULATIONS!
11.1.2017
Daniel Loss wins the King Faisal International Prize for his pioneering work in the theory of spin dynamics and spin coherence in quantum dots showing promise for practical applications in spin quantum computers.
external pageWebpage of the KFIP
external pageUni Basel News
external pageBusiness Wire
19.12.16
ERC Consolidator Grant to Giacomo Scalari: Scalari’s research addresses “frequency combs”, which act as rulers in the frequency domain and can measure the frequency of electromagnetic radiation – including light – very precisely. Scalari will use his ERC Consolidator Grant to create on-chip, self-referenced frequency combs operating in the THz spectral range, where there is currently no compact comb source available. These devices will be appealing for metrology and material inspection, non-invasive imaging for medical applications, and wireless communication.
ETH News
9.12.2016
Upon application of ETH President Lino Guzzella the ETH Board appointed Professor Jonathan Home (*1979), currently Tenure Track Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich, as Associate Professor of Experimental Quantum Information.
Congratulations!
29.11.2016
Participate on the 30th of November and become a Bellster. The BIG Bell Test (BBT) is a worldwide project to bring human unpredictability to cutting-edge physics experiments, one of them prepared in the group of professor Andreas Wallraff. Be part of this latest Bell test, which seeks to catch quantum particles "talking" to each other and matching their answers to the questions asked.
ETH News
external pagethe BIG BELL TEST
14.11.2016
The ETH Zurich Latsis Prize 2016 goes to ETH physics professor Jonathan Home. He studies the frontier between quantum and classical physics using individual charged atoms that he controls with high precision.
ETH News
7.11.2016
Electrons in a solid can team up to form so-called quasiparticles, which lead to new phenomena. Ataç Imamoğlu and his collaborators at the Institute for Quantum Electronics at ETH in Zurich have now studied previously unidentified quasiparticles in a new class of atomically thin semiconductors. They have succeeded in finding a new piece of the puzzle, which also helps to put a previously misplaced piece in its correct position.
19.10.2016
Vectorial scanning force microcopy using a nanowire sensor: A new type of atomic force microscope (AFM) uses nanowires as tiny sensors. Unlike standard AFM, the device with a nanowire sensor enables measurements of both the size and direction of forces. Physicists from Anna Fontcuberta i Morral's group at epf Lausanne and Martino Poggio's group at the University of Basel have described these results in the recent issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
external pageNature Nanotechnology
external pageUni Basel News
external pageNZZ 18.10.2016
external pageIDW
8.10.2016
Nobelprize for topological phase transitions. Comments by Gianni Blatter and Sebastian Huber at the Swiss Radio.
external pageWissenschaftsmagazin, SRF
5.10.2016
Two years ago, Tilman Esslinger experimentally realised a theoretical model of a new material with unusual properties in his laboratory. Today, the father of the model received the Nobel Prize.
external pageThe Nobel Prize in Physics 2016
external pageScientific Background on the Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science
ETH News
ETH News 12.11.2014
external pageDeutschlandfunk
DownloadRadio 24, 4.10.2016 (MP3, 2.9 MB)
3.10.2016
An interdisciplinary team of theoretical and experimental physicists at ETH Zurich (Ramasubramanian Chitra, Anina Leuch, Oded Zilberberg, Luca Papariello and Alexander Eichler) has discovered a peculiar feature in oscillations similar to that of a child‘s swing. As a result, they have succeeded in outlining a novel principle for small, high-resolution sensors, and have submitted a patent application for it.
ETH News
external pageElectronic Specifier
external pageScience daily
external pagecleantech.ch
28.9.2016
Tobias Kippenberg has been selected to the WOK Thomson Reuters "highly cited” again this year.
A quantum leap for industry: The EU is providing one billion euros to develop quantum technology in a new flagship programme. Swiss scientists are already working to take it from the lab to the marketplace.
external page«Horizons» Nr. 110 September 2016
external pageBulletin-Online
18.8.2016
We are happy to announce that four INSPIRE Potentials – QSIT Master Internship Awards were granted to Nadine Leisgang,
Lena Barhta, Giulia Tenasini and Giulia Di Iorio.
CONGRATULATIONS!
15.8.2016
ID Quantique work within the European project SIQS has been selected for the Innovation Radar Prize 2016. With this prize, EU commission tries to identify high potential innovations and innovators in EU-funded research projects.
If you think that the single photon detector developed by IDQ is a good example of the high potential of innovation of quantum technologies, please vote for IDQ before the end of August so that they can be selected to the final round of this prize.
To vote go on this webpage: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/innovators/, scroll down till you see the IDQ logo and push once on the 'vote' button.
4.8.2016:
TV Interview - La téléportation quantique: In an interview at Radio Télévision Suisse Nicolas Gisin, discusses the quantum teleportation phenomena and its influence to future quantum technologies. external pageRTS-link
18.7.2016
The 18th July is the launch date for our quantum games, which let the public help build a quantum computer and engage with the science behind them. The two games, Decodoku and Decodoku:Puzzles will be available as apps on both iOS and Android. To celebrate their launch we will be answering all your questions about the science behind the games, and quantum computing in general. This will be done as an 'AMA' the science part of the popular website external pageReddit, from 7pm onwards.
13.7.2016
For the first time, researchers at the University of Basel have coupled the nuclear spins of distant atoms using just a single electron. The groups of Richard Warburton, Martino Poggio, and Daniel Loss took part in this complex experiment, the results of which have now been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
external pageNature Nanotechnology
external pageBasel Uni News
external pageidw-Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
30.6.2016
The start-up companies external pageMicroR Systems and external pageIRsweep as well as the CTI partner external pageNanonis were guests at the QSIT booth at the external pageSwiss Nanoconvention in Basel.
10.6.16
Matthias Troyer is cited in an article on "Computing’s Search for Quantum Questions" that reports on recent tests that show quantum computers made by D-Wave Systems should solve some problems faster than ordinary computers.
Quanta Magazine 10.6.16, external pageon line article.
May 2016
We are happy to announce that the first two INSPIRE Potentials – QSIT Master Internship Awards were granted to Chiara Decaroli and Lea Ghisalberti who will complete their master thesis in the group of Sebastian Huber and Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, respectively.
CONGRATULATIONS!
26.4.2016
Quantum correlations in a Bose-Einstein condensate : In a collaboration supported by QSIT, researchers around Nicolas Sangouard’s group and Philipp Treutlein’s group have detected the strongest form of quantum correlations, namely Bell-correlations, between several hundreds of atoms.
external pageScience
external pagePress release from the University of Basel
external pageDaily mail online
external pagePhys.Org
external pageScience daily
external pageNanowerk
22.4.2016
MicroR systems is a spin-off of the NCCR QSIT, providing optical microresonators for laser frequency control. MicroR systems will be part of the Swiss Pavillion at the Hannover Messe, April 25-29, 2016.
external pageMicroR Systems
external pageMicroR Systems in Hannover
external pageSNSF News
18.4.2016
First creation of huge quantum states with oscillating ions: For years physicists have strived to control the quantum states of atoms or molecules very accurately. Researchers from Jonathan Home's group have now established a record for the size of quantum states generated with massive particles. Their technique could be used to make quantum computers faster.
12.4.2016
In phase transitions, for instance between water and water vapour, the motional energy competes with the attractive energy between neighbouring molecules. Physicists from Tilman Esslinger's group have now studied quantum phase transitions in which distant particles also influence one another.
21.3.2016
Quantum Error Correction: The Game
This is not just any puzzle game. This is a quantum puzzle game! You can just play it for fun, or you can use it to conduct scientific research in the field of quantum error correction.
These are the puzzles that need to be solved to keep quantum computers free of errors. We need to work out the best way to do it. By becoming a master at this game, you could help build a real-life quantum computer.
Check out our website, in external pageEnglish or external pageGerman, for more details on the science behind the game.
The app was developed by James Wootton, a quantum error correction researcher at the University of Basel. It is supported by the NCCR QSIT.
10.3.2016
Atomic Vibrations in Nanomaterials: Researchers from Vanessa Wood's group have shown for the first time what happens to atomic vibrations when materials are nanosized and how this knowledge can be used to systematically engineer nanomaterials for different applications.
external pageNature
ETH Zurich Press release
external pagePhysOrg
external pageUnternehmerzeitung
25.2.2016
In experiments with trapped ions, all basic components needed for large-scale quantum computing have been demonstrated already. The approach faces major challenges, however, when it comes to scaling it up. In a practical quantum computer, a large number of gate operations have to be performed in parallel across an array of traps. Researchers from Jonathan Home's research group at ETH Zurich might now have found a way how this can be done.
external pagePRL116, 080502
external pagePRL Synopsis
external pagePRL News and commentary
19.2.2016
Fliegende Quanten: Forscher versuchen, die abhörsichere Datenkommunikation mithilfe von Satellitentechnik praxistauglich zu machen. Erste Tests waren bisher vielversprechend.
22.12.2015
Alumnus Michael Kohn donation directing a substantial contribution towards ETH Zurich’s Quantum Engineering Initiative was highlighted in the press.
21.12.2015
Faster entanglement of distant quantum dots: Entanglement between distant quantum objects is an important ingredient for future information technologies. Researchers around Atac Imamoglu have now developed a method with which such states can be created a thousand times faster than before.
18.12.2015
A step towards quantum engineering: Work performed jointly by physicists of the NCCR QSIT at the University of Geneva (Thierry Giamarchi's group) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (J.-P. Brantut & Tilman Esslinger's group), in which they connected two materials with unusual quantum-mechanical properties through a quantum constriction, could open up a novel path towards both a deeper understanding of physics and future electronic devices. Their results have just been published in the journal Science.
external pagePress release of the University of Geneva
external pageOriginal article
external pageCommentary by Wolgang Belzig
4.12.2015
Vanessa Wood and Philipp Treutlein were awarded an ERC starting grant for their projects entitled «Development of Quantitative Metrologies to Guide Lithium Ion Battery Manufacturing» and «Modular mechanical-atomic quantum systems», respectively.
C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S !
external pageERC News
ETH News
external pageUniversity of Basel press release
external pageComputerworld.ch
external pageBadische Zeitung
30.10.2015
Tobias J. Kippenberg is honored with the Klung-Wilhelmy-Science Award 2015. The award recognizes his pioneering work on the interaction of light with micro- and nano-mechanical systems. The award is endowed with 75,000 Euro will be presented on Thursday, 19 November 2015 at the Free University of Berlin.
external pagePress release FU Berlin
external pageEPFL News
external pageKlung-Wilhelmy-Science Award
20.10.2015
Matthias Troyer has won the 2016 Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics of the American Physical Societyfor his pioneering numerical work in many seemingly intractable areas of quantum many body physics and for providing efficient sophisticated computer codes to the community.
14.10.2015
In a joint project physicists from Gianni Blatter's, Klaus Ensslin's, Thomas Ihn's and Werner Wegscheider's group have managed to build a resonator for electrons and to direct the standing waves thus created onto an artificial atom.
external pagePhysical Review Letters
external pagePhysics Viewpoint
ETH News
external pageScience Newslineexternal pageComputer Stories
26.8.2015
Tobias Kippenberg and his group have used feedback to cool the motion of a micron-sized glass string to near absolute zero. This required building a sensor capable of resolving the smallest vibration allowed by quantum mechanics.
external pageNature
external pageEPFL News
external pagePhys.org
29.7.2015
The Spring 2015 EPS Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics went to Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Institut des Matériaux at EPF Lausanne, honoring her pioneering contributions to the physics of semiconductor nanostructures and their applications in mesoscopic physics and energy harvesting.
7.7.2015
Sebastian Huber and his colleagues show that the road from abstract theory to practical applications needn’t always be very long. Their mechanical implementation of a quantum mechanical phenomenon could soon be used for soundproofing purposes.
21.05.2015
Jonathan Home and his group have revealed the strange nature of quantum physics in experiments on a trapped calcium ion. By cooling down the state of the trapped ion they were able to create a so-called 'squeezed Schrödinger cat' state. This achievement might open the way to new technologies.
external pageNature
external pageNature - News and Views
ETH News
external pageSpektrum der Wissenschaft
external pageNZZ online
03.04.2015
Bettina Heim has succeeded in publishing the results of her semester project in one of the most prestigious scientific journals. Heim was able to show why in certain tests current quantum computing devices were no faster than conventional computers, contrary to previous assumptions. ETH News met the former top athlete and now successful scientist.
11.3.2015
Catching qubits in a trap: Jonathan Home's research group presented at the ETH News portal.
20.02.2015
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Jonathan Home, and Stefan Willitsch each win a Swiss National Science Foundation Consolidator Grant. Their projects are entitled "Earth-Abundant Semiconductors for Next-Generation Energy Harvesting, EASEH", "Quantum Simulations with Trapped Ions in Optical Lattices", and "Conformationally controlled chemistry", respectively.
CONGRATULATIONS !
external pageSNSF
external pageEPFL press
ETHZ News
external pageUni Basel press
10.02.2015
Since the mid-1990s, quantum cryptography has been giving us a glimpse of great opportunities. This technique which relies on quantum mechanics enables the secure transfer of sensitive data without them being intercepted. So far, the transmission distance for encrypted data was the main obstacle to widespread use, but today physicists form Hugo Zbinden's group at the University of Geneva have managed to distribute quantum keys over 307 kilometres, which can be used to encode a message. They have also managed to improve the security analysis and have developed a compact and practical technology.
external pageNature photonics
external pageActualities University of Geneva
27.01.2015
Vanessa Wood and her group have developed a comprehensive model to explain how electrons flow inside new types of solar cells made of tiny crystals. The model allows for a better understanding of such cells and may help to increase their efficiency.
external pageNature Communications
ETH News
external pageErneuerbare Energien
external pageSolarify
external pageAZO Nano
14.01.2015
Latsis Prize 2014 awarded to quantum physicist Tobias Kippenberg:
The physicist Tobias Kippenberg has been awarded the National Latsis Prize, which is worth CHF 100,000 at the Rathaus in Berne. The 38-year-old EPFL professor receives the prize in recognition of his innovative research in quantum physics. The SNSF awards the prize annually on behalf of the Latsis Foundation in Geneva.
01.01.2015
In experiments using ultracold atoms and laser light, researchers from Tilman Esslinger's group have measured a stepwise change in conductivity as the atoms pass through tiny structures. This is the first time that this quantum effect has been observed for electrically neutral particles.