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.

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

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

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 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.

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,…

Pushing the boundaries of quantum theories – that’s exactly what the physicists at Leiden University excel at. Researchers in Leiden are launching eight new quantum research projects as part of the Quantum Limits consortium.

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.

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…

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.

This thesis probes under what conditions quantum computing presents an advantage over classical computing.

Promotor: C. W. J. Beenakker, Co-promotor: J. K. Asboth

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

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.

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

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,…

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.

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

Quantum hardware comes with a different computing paradigm and new ways to tackle applications. Much effort has to be put into understanding how to leverage this technology to give real-world advantages in areas of interest for industries such as combinatorial optimization or machine learning.

Promotor: C.W.J. Beenakker, Co-Promotor: A.R. Akhmerov

Nirajan Kafle defended his thesis on 15 October 2015

This thesis investigates the contribution of quantum computers to machine learning, a field called Quantum Machine Learning. Quantum Machine Learning promises innovative perspectives and methods for solving complex problems in machine learning, leveraging the unique capabilities of quantum computers…

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

Born in Europe roughly 100 years ago, quantum physics brought forth a veritable technological revolution through semiconductors, lasers, fibre optics, and many other technologies that are today ubiquitous in our lives. Now, during the second quantum revolution, Europe can take the lead once more in…

Promotor: C.W.J. Beenakker, Co-promotor: M.T. Wimmer

Promotores: Prof.dr. C.U. Keller, Prof.dr. H.C. Gerritsen

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).

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…

Quantum critical metals at vanishing fermion flavor number.

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.

Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are mechanical waves that travel along the surface of a material and find many applications in modern technologies due to the ease of excitation on piezoelectric substrates via interdigital transducers (IDTs).

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

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

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…

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:

With defending his thesis ‘Applications of topology to Weyl semimetals and quantum computing’, the Leiden theoretical physicist Tom O'Brien has gained the rare 'cum laude' qualification. The freshly minted PhD has started a five year research programme on quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry, funded…

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.

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

An important discovery makes it possible to communicate complex information among multiple people without the message being cracked. The communication can also relate to complex information.