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!
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
Congratulations to our PhD student Arfor, who turned our research topics into a dazzling music video!
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
Francesca was crowned as the ‘Austrian of the Year’ in the research category at the Austria 24 gala by Die Presse!
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
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
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
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
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.
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News from the labs
The magic of Er and Dy: magneto-optical trap with only 5 beams!
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Now in Physical Review A! In collaboration with our theory colleagues from Paris (M. Lepers, J.-F. Wyart and O. Dulieu) we have determined the dynamical polarizability of ultracold erbium atoms in the ground and in one excited state at three particular relevant wavelengths.
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n experiments with magnetic atoms conducted at extremely low temperatures, scientists have demonstrated a unique phase of matter: The atoms form a new type of quantum liquid or quantum droplet state. These so called quantum droplets may preserve their form in absence of external confinement because of quantum effects. The
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Group news
Our new pre-print with collaborators at ICFO, Barcelona, investigates the topological properties of the bond order wave in the extended Fermi-Hubbard model.
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Our new paper in Physical Review A explores the connection between trap geometry and atom number in determining the dimensionality of dipolar supersolids!
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Our review on the quantum many-body physics in ultracold magnetic lanthanides is now published in Nature Physics!
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Welcome and goodbye
After completing the Master's degree in Heidelberg under the supervision of Prof. Weidemüller in the Li-Cs mixture experiment, Lauritz joined our team in February as a PhD student in the Er-Dy dipolar quantum mixture Lab. Welcome to Innsbruck, Lauritz!
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With the beginning of the new year, Matt joins our team as Post-Doc in the Er-Dy LAB. Welcome to Innsbruck, Matt!
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With the beginning of the new year, Bing joins our team as Post-Doc in the ERBIUM lab. After finishing his PhD in Heidelberg (DE) and Hefei (CN) under the supervision of Prof. Jian-Wei Pan in 2015, he continued as a Post-Doc in Heidelberg. Welcome, Bing!
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