The study of levitated dipolar scatterers is a growing field of physics that promises to uncover the connection between quantum mechanics and gravity and develop future devices for ultra-precise force sensing. In collaboration with the nanosphere team of the QI group, we investigated a new method based on the manipulation of spontaneous emission to measure the position and motion of these scatterers. In this work, we predict that our method, unlike other state-of-the-art techniques, can reach the Heisenberg limit of detection, in which the position measurement is only bounded by the recoil force of the scattered light.

Welcome Zhenlin! During his undergraduate study, Zhenlin joined the group of Prof. Yiheng Lin in the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) where he learned about trapped ion quantum system. After his graduation he studied his master in the group of Prof. Rene Gerritsma in the University of Amsterdam, where he was involved in setting up the experiment for quantum simulation with 2D trapped ion crystals. He will be working on realizing quantum characterization and control of single trapped molecular ions in the QCosmo project during his PhD.

Congratulations, Tiff!

Thesis Title: Randomised Measurements with Strings of Trapped Ions

Welcome Lorenz! Lorenz studied physics here in Innsbruck. During his Erasmus exchange for his Masters project he worked on short pulses for Raman transitions in atom interferometry in Birmingham - England. He will be working on building up a new high fidelity quantum processor.

Congratulations, Alex!

Thesis Title: Towards scalable quantum computation with trapped ions

Congratulations, Ben!

Thesis Titled: Coherent control of a ⁴⁰Ca⁺ ground state qubit

The observation of trapped ions' motion is a cutting-edge method for stringent tests of quantum mechanics and precision measurements of the rest energies of fundamental particles. We have developed a new method based on fluorescence detection to measure this motion. We reveal all the oscillations' frequencies of a trapped ion chain simultaneously by only using the Doppler cooling radiation and the help of a mirror that reflects the ions' fluorescence back on the ions.

So far, quantum computers have been one-of-a-kind devices that fill entire laboratories. Now, physicists at the University of Innsbruck have built a prototype of an ion trap quantum computer that can be used in industry. It fits into two 19-inch server racks like those found in data centers throughout the world.