Research Fellow Position in San Sebastian

Research Fellow Position in San Sebastian

Apply now for building a powerful new platform for quantum simulation with dysprosium atoms in programmable optical tweezer arrays. More information in the Dy-Yt Lab Section!

2025 Group Openings!

2025 Group Openings!

We are happy to announce that our dipolar quantum gas group has an Academy Scientist + Postdoc and PhD positions open for 2025!

“Dance your PhD 2025” contest by Science and AAAS

“Dance your PhD 2025” contest by Science and AAAS

Congratulations to our PhD student Arfor, who turned our research topics into a dazzling music video!

Vortices in a supersolid

Vortices in a supersolid

2024’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics: Our research on the observation of vortices in a dipolar supersolid featured by Quanta magazine!

Austrian of the Year 2024

Austrian of the Year 2024

Francesca was crowned as the ‘Austrian of the Year’ in the research category at the Austria 24 gala by Die Presse!

Summer BBQ

Summer BBQ

Our 2024 Summer BBQ took place on the 24th of June and celebrated the many different achievements of the group!

Murder Mystery Dinner

Murder Mystery Dinner

Our 2024 group dinner took place on the 18th of January at CasoinN da Giorgio restaurant, with a 1920’s Murder Mystery theme!

Glitches in supersolids: links between neutron stars and quantum matter

Glitches in supersolids: links between neutron stars and quantum matter

By emulating the connection between a rotating supersolid phase and an external solid phase, we were able to replicate “glitches” – sudden jumps in the solid angular momentum driven by quantum vortices leaving the supersolid.

Cluster of Excellence Quantum Science Austria granted

Cluster of Excellence Quantum Science Austria granted

Three Clus­ters of Excel­lence in Inns­bruck have been funded! With highly endowed clusters of excellence, the Austrian Science Fund FWF creates Austrian flagships of basic research. The University of Innsbruck will coordinate the Cluster of Excellence for Quantum Sciences.

Bloch Oscillations

Bloch Oscillations

By letting an erbium quantum droplet fall under gravity through an optical lattice, it is possible to understand the inter-atomic interactions and quantum fluctuations through variations of the Bloch oscillation.  

Our group studies dipolar quantum gases made of  Erbium (Er) and Dysprosium (Dy) atoms. These extraordinarily magnetic species are a powerful new resource for reaching quantum simulation with strong connectivity, in which each atom is coupled to the other over long distances, and exploring exotic phases of matter that have no classical counterpart.

We have four labs: the ERBIUM LAB, where Er was Bose condensed for the first time ever; the Er-Dy LAB, which studies quantum dipolar mixtures under a quantum-gas microscope; the T-REQs LAB, where we trap Er atoms in arrays of optical tweezers for Rydberg physics; and the Dy-Yb LAB, currently under construction – this new experimental apparatus will be used to study many-body phases of highly-magnetic dysprosium and of mixtures with non-magnetic ytterbium. The Theory Group completes our team studying and predicting dipolar phenomena in dipolar quantum gases and mixtures.

The group, led by Francesca Ferlaino, is jointly located at the  Institute for Experimental Physics (IExP) of the University of Innsbruck and at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and it is part of  the Innsbruck Center for Ultracold Atoms and Quantum Gases

Follow our group’s updates on Bluesky and LinkedIn !

News from the labs

Now in PRL! The supersolid phase transition at finite temperature is poorly understood since tools for an adequate theoretical simulation are still lacking. We have characterised the evaporative formation of a dipolar supersolid from a thermal gas using in-situ imaging. The work is to appear in PRL.
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Now in Nature Physics! Supersolids are fluid and solid at the same time. In jointly collaboration work, together with Thierry Giamarchi, theoretical physicist from the University of Geneva, we have for the first time investigated what happens when such a state is brought out of balance.
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Lauriane and Francesca, together with Blair Blakie and Danny Bailly (Otago University), theoretically studied the supersolid phase diagram of dipolar quantum Bose gases in cylindrical geometries. The work is now published in Physical Review Research.
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Group news

May 10-12. 2023 - Unravelling quantum many-body physic with long-range interacting platforms
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Three Clus­ters of Excel­lence in Inns­bruck have been funded! With highly endowed clusters of excellence, the Austrian Science Fund FWF creates Austrian flagships of basic research. The University of Innsbruck will coordinate the Cluster of Excellence for Quantum Sciences.
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The position of a 1-year Postdoctoral Researcher is now open to applications. The successful candidate will join Dr. Thomas Bland and Prof. Francesca Ferlaino at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. The work concerns the question: “How ‘solid’ is a dipolar supersolid?”
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Welcome and goodbye

Welcome to Samuel, who has joined the T-Reqs team as PhD Student
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Bing Yang is moving to the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) as Associate Professor. Congratulation Bing! We wish you great success in your next adventure in physics.
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Welcome to Eva, who has joined the Er-Dy team as PhD Student.
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