Kiesel Labs

Quantum State Engineering and Thermodynamics with Levitated Particles

Optical table in the laboratory with a vacuum chamber at its centre, surrounded by lenses, mirrors and optomechanical mounts.

Stefan Lindner / Universität Wien

The motion of massive objects is ultimately governed by quantum mechanics — but how far that reach can be extended, and how precisely such motion can be controlled, are, for us, questions to be settled in the laboratory. Working at the interface of quantum optics and optomechanics, we invent new experimental primitives to control, couple, and read out the motion of levitated nano- and microparticles, finding ways to engineer quantum states of motion. This ultimately allows us to test the limits set by thermodynamics and open-system quantum dynamics.

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Funding

Support for our work comes from Quantum Science Austria (quantA), a Cluster of Excellence funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), from the FWF START Programme (Y952), the QuantERA project QuaSeRT, the EU projects TherMiQ and IQLev, two Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships, ESQ Discovery Grants of the Erwin Schrödinger Center for Quantum Science and Technology, and the quantA Core Project CP210, "Ion-assisted non-Gaussian quantum states of levitated nanoparticles".