Research groups in the Quantum Matter & Optics programme investigate electronic properties of matter and light-matter interactions with emphasis on quantum information.

Optical cavities are useful tools to enhance the interaction between light and matter, which is important to make good quantum emitters. However, it turns out that the cavities themselves (without any quantum emitters) are already interesting objects to study.

The quantum nature of matter and light has grown into a broad and fruitful research field for theorists and experimentalists alike. It combines foundational research with toward applications, the most well known of which is the quantum computer.

The quantum nature of matter and light has grown into a broad and fruitful research field for theorists and experimentalists alike. It combines foundational research with toward applications, the most well known of which is the quantum computer.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M.A.G.J. Orrit

The research program of the QO group has three leading themes: Optical Physics, Quantum Optics, and Photon-Matter Interactions. We work mostly at the boundaries between these themes with entanglement as a bridging and binding agent.

Advancing the understanding of the interaction of light and matter on the single-quantum level is important for near-future quantum technologies but also to answer fundamental questions.

The master’s specialisation Research in Physics, Quantum Matter and Optics at Leiden University offers a thorough experience on the front line of physics research with a practical training of communicative and computer skills. The programme focuses on Condensed Matter problems, such as Molecular Electronics,…

Promotor: Prof.dr. D. Bouwmeester, Co-promotor: M.P. van Exter

A single self-assembled semiconductor quantum dot in a high-finesse optical microcavity - the subject of this thesis - is an interesting quantum-mechanical system for future quantum applications. For instance, this system allows trapping of an extra electron and thus can serve as a spin quantum memory,…

Research in the van Exter lab focuses on quantum aspects of light and light-matter interaction. One of our long-term goals is to develop a reliable quantum memory, based on a single emitter in an open micro cavity.

We study the dynamics of individual emitters in micro cavities.

Since the early 1990s, one can isolate the optical signal of a single molecule and single-molecule spectroscopy has quickly grown into an important research field.

The worldwide race to the quantum computer is in full swing. This computer can take on computing tasks that we can only dream of today, such as finding proteins that can be used as medicines in seconds flat. Leiden physicists have discovered how the Majorana particle can be used as a building block…

Single-molecule spectroscopy has become a powerful method for using organic fluorescent molecules in numerous applications.

Promotor: R. Gill, Co-promotor: P. Massart

Quantum computers deserve their own quantum internet. This is a network that dispatches information not in the form of bits - ones and zeros - but rather as qubits, just like in the quantum computer itself. In the view of Dirk Bouwmeester, a professor in Leiden’s Quantum Matter & Optics research group,…

Our group explores the larger domain of quantum measurement. In particular we investigate two themes that are closely connected: The detection of specially prepared quantum states of light and understanding and characterizing quantum photon detectors.

Promotor: Prof.dr. D. Bouwmeester, Co-Promotor: M.J.A. de Dood

The research group ‘Quantum and Society’ explores the boundary between quantum technology and science communication.

We are a dynamic research group at the Leiden Institute of Physics. Our aim is to explore and understand quantum materials, including strange metals, high-temperature superconductors, and quantum critical electron matter.

The Clinical Epidemiology department at the LUMC has set up a series of lectures for asylum seekers. The series has become a huge success.

This master’s programme combines Physics with Data Science. You will learn how physics has its own tricks to deal with big data and how techniques from machine learning and deep learning can be applied to classical and quantum data. The first focus of attention is on classical data, including data mining,…

We explore the possibilities to combine magnetic resonance techniques with atomic force microscopy together in a single microscope: the MRI-AFM, also called Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM).

Nirajan Kafle defended his thesis on 15 October 2015

Quantum critical metals at vanishing fermion flavor number.

In our lab, we investigate the physics and material properties of low-dimensional systems.

Leiden physicists have created a light source that emits individual particles in an identical state through optical fibers. Using this setup, their measurements can last longer and are more efficient, meaning they can perform more in-depth research on bizarre quantum effects, such as interference and…

The studies in this thesis are focused on the physical effects in the flat band materials. The results contain the discovery of strong enhancement of RKKY spin-spin interactions with specific geometric arrangement and dynamical generation of excitonic order parameter with high magnitude.

The research in my group addresses a range of topics related to quantum many-body physics.

Physicist Martin van Exter works with light at nanoscale, at the forefront of nanocomputer research. But as Director of Education he also has a vision for physics teaching. Inaugural lecture 18 November.

An international collaboration, including Leiden physicist and computer scientist Vedran Dunjko, showed that quantum technology can speed-up the learning process of artificial intelligence (AI). To prove this, the physicists and computer scientists used a quantum processor for single photons. Their…

This research focuses on the (Quantum) Dynamics (QD) of the reactive scattering of H2 from metal surfaces.

Promotor: Prof.dr. E. R. Eliel, Co-Promotor: M.J.A. de Dood

Astronomer Koen Kuijken and physicist Tjerk Oosterkamp have each been awarded a major subsidy by NWO. The funding will allow them to construct new research facilities.

The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics states that a measurement collapses a wavefunction onto an eigenstate of the corresponding measurement operator.

No less than six Leiden projects received a grant for quantum research from the national growth programme Quantum Delta NL and the NWO. After all, in order to boost quantum technology not only industry is needed, but also science. Research towards new sensors, faster algorithms and quantum materials,…

The elementary excitations of magnets are called spin waves, and their corresponding quasi-particles are known as magnons. The rapidly growing field of Magnonics aims at using them as information carriers in a new generation of electronic devices, (almost) free of electric currents.

Promotores: Prof.dr. D. Bouwmeester, Prof.dr. A. Fiore (TU Eindhoven)

This thesis is a collection of experimental attempts to enhance photoluminescence of fluorescent molecules and quantum dots with single gold nanorods (GNRs) and relevant applications.

The van Exter group has an extensive history of prior research in classical and quantum optics. As former part of the group of Han Woerdman, we have studied topics as diverse as:

Scientists need individual photons for quantum cryptography and quantum computers. Leiden physicists have now experimentally demonstrated a new production method. Publication in Physical Review Letters on July 23rd.

Biological polymers, including proteins and the genome, undergo folding processes crucial for their proper functioning. Even slight changes in the folding structure of these biopolymers can have significant implications, leading to the development of various pathological conditions, such as neurodegenerative…

The standard approach to build a quantum computer with Majoranas as building blocks is to convert them into qubits. However, a promising application of quantum computing—quantum chemistry—would require these qubits to be converted again into so-called fermions. Physicists from Leiden and Delft suggest…

‘We hope our paper highlights the possibilities and benefits of including artificial intelligence in quantum physics to do new discoveries.’ Vedran Dunjko of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science contributed to a paper that was published in PNAS last year and now received a Cozzarelli Prize…

On the 20th of October Abdullah Alhatlani successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

We develop open micro cavities to trap light in small volumes and thereby increase the interaction with intra-cavity emitters. Important aspects in this development are the optical penetration in the mirrors, coupling between optical modes, and scattering and clipping losses.

An international collaboration, including Leiden physicist and computer scientist Vedran Dunjko, showed that quantum technology can speed-up the learning process of artificial intelligence (AI). To prove this, the physicists and computer scientists used a quantum processor for single photons. Their…