Exploiting quantum optics for sensing and fundamental questions.
A great number of large-scale atom-interferometric detectors for gravitational waves and dark matter are planned to rely on single-photon transitions to suppress laser phase noise. We study (magnetically-induced) single-photon transitions under the influence of dark matter, violations of the equivalence principle, and other relativistic effects like the mass defect in terrestrial setups.
A. Bott, F. Di Pumpo & E. Giese
Atomic diffraction from single-photon transitions in gravity and Standard-Model extensions
AVS Quantum Science 5, 04402 (2023)
We congratulate Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier on the “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”. Nobel Prize in Physics 20223
Such pulses are routinely used to implement attosecond clocks, which give access to study the effect of time in quantum tunneling processes. These concepts are directly related to our efforts in quantum tunneling, as studied in . QUANTUS+
The Theoretical Quantum Optics group at the Institute of Applied Physics, TU Darmstadt, studies theoretically quantum properties of light, matter and their interaction. Our research focuses on quantum-mechanical tests of fundamental physics as well as the development of quantum technologies for sensing and metrology. High-precision measurements of gravity lead us to the interface of two fields, namely quantum mechanics and relativity, and sometimes even into space. Our interests range from quantum gases to atom optics, from nonlinear quantum-optical effects to atom interferometry, and from quantum metrology to inertial sensing. Although working on theoretical and fundamental physics, we make an effort to stay in touch with the experimental reality.