PhD Positions in Experimental Quantum Physics

Are you a eager to build state-of-the-art experiments and use them to explore quantum physics in a lively, international group?

Our Strontium Quantum Gases Group is looking for ambitious PhD students who want to participate in exciting quantum simulation, sensing and computing experiments. This group is headed by Prof. Florian Schreck and is part of the Quantum Gases & Quantum Information (QG&QI) cluster at the Institute of Physics (IoP) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and also hosts the Quantum Delta NL Ultracold Quantum Sensing Testbed. We use ultracold Sr gases for quantum sensing, to study many-body quantum physics and for quantum computing. We have four open PhD positions, one each on the research projects described below. For more information about the projects take a look at our website or contact Florian Schreck .

What are you going to do?

Project 1: Continuous atom laser

In this project you will build the first continuous atom laser. An atom laser is a beam of atoms that is described by a coherent matter wave. So far only short atom laser pulses have been created by outcoupling a beam of atoms from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The laser stops working when all atoms of the BEC have been outcoupled, requiring the creation of a new BEC for the next atom laser pulse. BEC creation is usually a lengthy process, requiring several cooling stages to be executed one after the other in time. We have built a machine that can execute these stages one after the other in space, enabling us to Bose-Einstein condense continuously [1]. This allows us to create a BEC that lasts as long as we want. It's the atomic equivalent of an optical laser with perfectly reflective cavity mirrors. Your goal will be to take the next step and outcouple the first continuous atom laser beam from the BEC. Such a beam would be an ideal source for continuous atom interferometry [2]. A second goal of the project is to create interesting driven-dissipative quantum systems and study their properties.

Project 2: Sr optical clocks

In this project you will build and do research with one of the most precise optical clocks in the world. Your clock would go wrong by only one second over the lifetime of the universe and is capable of sensing the change in gravitational time dilation originating from a height change of less than one centimeter [5]. This project is very collaborative as it is not only a research project in itself, but also a crucial part of other research projects. As a start, you will learn the ropes from our superradiant clock team. You will be involved in every aspect of building your clock, from electronics, over lasers, optics, frequency combs, ultrastable resonators to vacuum chambers. Once the clock is operational you will use it to collaborate with other research teams, enabling our superradiant clock, precise qubit operations in our quantum computer (project 4), or studying fundamental physics with precision spectroscopy (with our colleagues at the Free University). For the latter you will participate in setting up a frequency link through telecom fibres to the Free University in Amsterdam and to the Eindhoven University of Technology. This project is part of the Quantum Delta NL Ultracold Quantum Sensing Testbed, which will give you many opportunities to work with industry, in particular to design photonic circuits for optical clocks.

Project 3: Quantum simulation and computing with Rydberg coupled single Sr atoms

Quantum computers and simulators can solve problems that are utterly out of reach for traditional computers. We are building two quantum computers/simulators based on arrays of strontium atoms held in optical tweezers [6], one in our lab and one at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Quantum bits are encoded in the internal states of these atoms and quantum calculations are carried out by shining laser beams onto the atoms in a well-orchestrated way. Quantum computers based on neutral atoms profit from the fact that the atoms are naturally identical and that it is quite easy to scale the computer to hundreds of quantum bits. Our quantum computer is based on strontium atoms, an alkaline-earth element that is also commonly used to build some of the best clocks in the world. Exploiting the clock built in project 3 and supported by QuantumDelta NL and the Quantum Software Consortium we are building quantum computers that can demonstrate algorithms developed by QuSoft or solve quantum chemistry problems. In Amsterdam we can currently trap strontium atoms in an array of 49 tweezers [7]. You will extend this machine with the lasers necessary to implement one- and two-qubit gates and perform quantum simulations and computations with it.

References

Tasks and responsibilities:

• Designing, constructing and debugging ultracold atom experiments;
• conducting research, resulting in academic publications in peer-reviewed international journals and/or books;
• supervising Bachelor and Master theses and tutoring students;