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!
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.
ERC Advanced Grant DymetEr has been funded!
Happy 10th Birthday to the first Erbium BEC!
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 three 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, and the T-REQs LAB, where we trap Er atoms in arrays of optical tweezers for Rydberg physics. Recently, we have established a Theory Group aimed at 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
In a combined theory and experimental work, we study the elementary excitations of trapped dipolar quantum gases crossing from regular superfluid to supersolid. Our work is now published in PRL and summarized in the Synopsis by Sophia Chen.
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In quantum physics, the spectrum of elementary excitations dictates the way a quantum system behaves and reacts to perturbations. Hence, in superfluids, the possibility of frictionless flow is encoded in their excitation spectrum.
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In a joint work from the RARE and ERBIUM team as well as our theory collaborator from IQOQI, Rick van Bijnen, we have observed hallmarks of supersolidity in dipolar quantum gases of Erbium and Dysprosium. Our work is highlighted in a Viewpoint article in Physics by T. Donner.
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Group news
On the International Women's Day March 8, 2012 a team led by Francesca Ferlaino created the very first BEC from highly-magnetic erbium atoms in their lab at the University of Innsbruck.
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Elena has been awarded the prize “Ho una laurea nella manica” established by her hometown for young people who graduated cum laude in 2020.
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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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Welcome and goodbye
After 5 productive years in the Dipolar Quantum Gas Group, Lauriane Chomaz is moving to the University of Heidelberg as Tenure-Track Professor. Congratulation Lauriane! We wish you great success in your next adventure in physics
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Welcome to Elena, who has joined the Theory team as PhD Student.
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