Prof. Dr. Tobias Donner
ETH Zürich
Institute for Quantum Electronics
Quantum Optics Group
Otto Stern Weg 1, HPF D20
8093 Zürich
Switzerland
Tel.: +41 44 63-33954
Fax: +41 44 63-31254
Email: donner@phys.ethz.ch
Research Interest
Quantum Optics
Cavity Optomechanics
Cavity QED
Bose-Einstein Condensation
Atom Lasers
Critical Phenomena
Geophysics
Short CV
08/2024: awarded title of Professor of ETH Zurich
08/2013: Senior Scientist at ETH Zurich
07/2010 - 07/2013: ETH Zürich postdoctoral research fellow
11/2008 - 06/2010: postdoctoral research fellow at JILA, Boulder (CO), USA (DFG fellowship)
06/2008 - 10/2008: ETH Zürich postdoctoral research fellow
01/2005 - 05/2008: ETH Zürich PhD Student
06/2004 - 12/2004: Travelling in China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand
08/2002 - 05/2004: University of Tübingen, Physics Diploma
09/2001 - 07/2002: University of Uppsala, Exchange Student
09/1998 - 08/2001: University of Tübingen
10/1997 - 03/1998: University of Kaiserslautern (correspondence course)
Press response
Second Law in an Optical Cavity and a BEC (APS Synopsis): https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.160604
The return of supersolids: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/2017/feb/14/the-return-of-supersolids
Supersolid produced in exotic state of quantum matter: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/supersolids-produced-exotic-state-quantum-matter
Three-way battles in the quantum world: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160411124720.htm
Mechanics in its ground state: pro-physik.de/Phy/leadArticle.do
Mechanics in its ground state: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6044/832
Measurement of critical exponent: www.sciencemag.org/content/315/5818/1504.full
Awards and Fellowships
Golden Owl award of the VSETH for excellent teaching 2024
ERC Consolidator Grant (SBFI-financed) 2022
IOP Outstanding Reviewer Awards (New Journal of Physics) 2016
qstarter award of NCCR QSIT (quantum science and information technology) 2013
Fellowship of the German Research Foundation (DFG Forschungsstipendium) 2008
Teaching
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (FS2025)
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (FS2024)
Quantum Optics (HS2023)
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (FS2023)
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (FS2022)
QSIT winter school: "Quantum simulation with ultracold atoms" (2022)
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (FS2020)
QSIT winter school: "Quantum simulation with ultracold atoms" (2020)
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (FS2019)
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (HS2017)
QSIT winter school: "Quantum simulation with ultracold atoms" (2017)
EPFL school on matter-light interaction: "Many-body cavity QED" (2017)
QSIT winter school: "Quantum simulation with ultracold atoms" (2016)
SFB summer school: "Critical behavior of a Bose gas" and "Quantum phase transitions in long-range interacting many-body systems" (2016)
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (FS2016)
IDEA league summer school: "Quantum simulation with ultracold atoms" (2015)
Frontiers of Quantum Gas Research: Few- and Many-Body Physics (FS2015)
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (FS2014)
Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Gases (FS2013)
QuAMP summer school: "Mechanical interaction of matter and light" (2012)
Publications
(see also Google Scholar)| 1 | Pauli crystal superradiance Daniel Ortuño-Gonzalez; Rui Lin; Justyna Stefaniak; Alexander Baumgärtner; Gabriele Natale; Tobias Donner; R. Chitra Arxiv preprint 2505.02837 (2025) ArXiv: 🔗 link |
| 2 | Bandstructure of a coupled BEC-cavity system: effects of dissipation and geometry David Baur; Simon Hertlein; Alexander Baumgärtner; Justyna Stefaniak; Tilman Esslinger; Gabriele Natale; Tobias Donner Arxiv preprint 2504.17730 (2025) ArXiv: 🔗 link |
| 3 | Synchronization of Quasi-Particle Excitations in a Quantum Gas with Cavity-Mediated Interactions Gabriele Natale; Alexander Baumgärtner; Justyna Stefaniak; David Baur; Simon Hertlein; Dalila Rivero; Tilman Esslinger; Tobias Donner Arxiv preprint 2504.17731 (2025) ArXiv: 🔗 link |
| 4 | Stability and decay of subradiant patterns in a quantum gas with photon-mediated interactions Alexander Baumgärtner; Simon Hertlein; Tom Schmit; Davide Dreon; Carlos Máximo; Xiangliang Li; Giovanna Morigi; Tobias Donner Arxiv preprint 2407.09227 (2024) ArXiv: 🔗 link |
| 5 | Dissipation-induced non-equilibrium phases with temporal and spatial order Zhang, Zhao, Dreon, Davide, Esslinger, Tilman, Jaksch, Dieter, Buca, Berislav, Donner, Tobias Ulrik Communications Physics, 8, 211 (2025) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 6 | Dynamics of spin-momentum entanglement from superradiant phase transitions Chelpanova, Oksana, Seetharam, Kushal, Rosa-Medina Pimentel, Rodrigo Felipe, Reiter, Nicola, Finger, Fabian, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Marino, Jamir Physical Review Research, 6, 033193 (2024) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 7 | Spin- and Momentum-Correlated Atom Pairs Mediated by Photon Exchange and Seeded by Vacuum Fluctuations Finger, Fabian, Rosa-Medina Pimentel, Rodrigo Felipe, Reiter, Nicola, Christodoulou, Panagiotis, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Physical Review Letters, 132, 093402 (2024) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 8 | A Python GPU-accelerated solver for the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and applications to many-body cavity QED Fioroni, Lorenzo, Gravina, Luca, Stefaniak, Justyna, Baumgärtner, Alexander, Finger, Fabian, Dreon, Davide, Donner, Tobias Ulrik SciPost Physics Codebases, No volume found, 38 (2024) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 9 | Quantum Fluctuation Dynamics of Dispersive Superradiant Pulses in a Hybrid Light-Matter System Stitely, Kevin C., Finger, Fabian, Rosa-Medina Pimentel, Rodrigo Felipe, Ferri, Francesco, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman, Parkins, Scott, Krauskopf, Bernd Physical Review Letters, 131, 143604 (2023) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 10 | Crafting the dynamical structure of synchronization by harnessing bosonic multilevel cavity QED Valencia-Tortora, Riccardo J., Kelly, Shane P., Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Morigi, Giovanna, Fazio, Rosario, Marino, Jamir Physical Review Research, 5, 023112 (2023) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 11 | Self-oscillating pump in a topological dissipative atom–cavity system Dreon, Davide, Baumgärtner, Alexander, Li, Xiangliang, Hertlein, Simon, Esslinger, Tilman, Donner, Tobias Ulrik Nature, 608, 494 (2022) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 12 | Quantum simulation with atoms and photons Brantut, Jean-Philippe, Donner, Tobias Ulrik SPG Mitteilungen, 67, 25 (2022) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 13 | Dissipation-Engineered Family of Nearly Dark States in Many-Body Cavity-Atom Systems Lin, Rui, Rosa-Medina Pimentel, Rodrigo Felipe, Ferri, Francesco, Finger, Fabian, Kroeger, Katrin, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman, Chitra, Ramasubramanian Physical Review Letters, 128, 153601 (2022) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 14 | Observing dynamical currents in a non-Hermitian momentum lattice Rosa-Medina Pimentel, Rodrigo Felipe, Ferri, Francesco, Finger, Fabian, Dogra, Nishant, Kroeger, Katrin, Lin, Rui, Chitra, R., Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Physical Review Letters, 128, 143602 (2022) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 15 | Emerging Dissipative Phases in a Superradiant Quantum Gas with Tunable Decay Ferri, Francesco, Rosa-Medina Pimentel, Rodrigo Felipe, Finger, Fabian, Dogra, Nishant, Soriente, Matteo, Zilberberg, Oded, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Physical Review X, 11, 041046 (2021) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 16 | First order phase transition between two centro-symmetric superradiant crystals Li, Xiangliang, Dreon, Davide, Zupancic, Philip, Baumgärtner, Alexander, Morales, Andrea, Zheng, Wei, Cooper, Nigel R., Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Physical Review Research, 3, L012024 (2021) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 17 | Cavity QED with quantum gases: new paradigms in many-body physics Mivehvar, Farokh, Piazza, Francesco, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Ritsch, Helmut Advances in Physics, 70, 1 (2021) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 18 | Continuous feedback on a quantum gas coupled to an optical cavity Kroeger, Katrin, Dogra, Nishant, Rosa-Medina, Rodrigo, Paluch, Marcin, Ferri, Francesco, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman New Journal of Physics, 22, 033020 (2020) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 19 | Dissipation-induced structural instability and chiral dynamics in a quantum gas Dogra, Nishant, Landini, Manuele, Kröger, Katrin, Hruby, Lorenz, Donner, Tobias, Esslinger, Tilman Science, 366, 1496 (2019) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 20 | P-Band Induced Self-Organization and Dynamics with Repulsively Driven Ultracold Atoms in an Optical Cavity Zupancic, Philip, Dreon, Davide, Li, Xiangliang, Baumgärtner, Alexander, Morales, Andrea, Zheng, Wei, Cooper, Nigel R., Esslinger, Tilman, Donner, Tobias Ulrik Physical Review Letters, 123, 233601 (2019) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 21 | Two-mode Dicke model from nondegenerate polarization modes Morales, Andrea, Dreon, Davide, Li, Xiangliang, Baumgartner, Alexander, Zupancic, Philip, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Physical Review A, 100, 013816 (2019) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 22 | Viewpoint: Dipolar Quantum Gases go Supersolid Donner, Tobias Ulrik Physics, 12, 38 (2019) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 23 | Experimental Determination of Irreversible Entropy Production in out-of-Equilibrium Mesoscopic Quantum Systems Brunelli, Matteo, Fusco, Lorenzo, Landig, Renate, Wieczorek, Witlef, Hoelscher-Obermaier, Jason, Landi, Gabriel, Semião, F.L., Ferraro, Alessandro, Kiesel, Nikolai, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, De Chiara, Gabriele, Paternostro, Mauro Physical Review Letters, 121, 160604 (2018) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 24 | Coupling two order parameters in a quantum gas Morales, Andrea, Zupancic, Philip, Léonard, Julian, Esslinger, Tilman, Donner, Tobias Ulrik Nature Materials, 17, 686 (2018) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 25 | Formation of a Spin Texture in a Quantum Gas Coupled to a Cavity Landini, Manuele, Dogra, Nishant, Kröger, Katrin, Hruby, Lorenz, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Physical Review Letters, 120, 223602 (2018) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 26 | Dissipation-Induced Anomalous Multicritical Phenomena Soriente, M., Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Chitra, Ramasubramanian, Zilberberg, Oded Physical Review Letters, 120, 183603 (2018) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 27 | Metastability and avalanche dynamics in strongly correlated gases with long-range interactions Hruby, Lorenz, Dogra, Nishant, Landini, Manuele, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115, 3279 (2018) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 28 | Monitoring and manipulating Higgs and Goldstone modes in a supersolid quantum gas Léonard, Julian, Morales, Andrea, Zupancic, Philip, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Science, 358, 1415 (2017) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 29 | Supersolid formation in a quantum gas breaking a continuous translational symmetry Léonard, Julian, Morales, Andrea, Zupancic, Philip, Esslinger, Tilman, Donner, Tobias Ulrik Nature, 543, 87 (2017) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 30 | Phase transitions in a Bose-Hubbard model with cavity-mediated global-range interactions Dogra, Nishant, Brennecke, Ferdinand, Huber, Sebastian D., Donner, Tobias Physical Review A, 94, 023632 (2016) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 31 | Quantum phases from competing short- and long-range interactions in an optical lattice Landig, Renate, Hruby, Lorenz, Dogra, Nishant, Landini, Manuele, Mottl, Rafael, Donner, Tobias, Esslinger, Tilman Nature, 532, 476 (2016) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 32 | Measuring the dynamic structure factor of a quantum gas undergoing a structural phase transition Landig, Renate, Brennecke, Ferdinand, Mottl, Rafael, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Nature Communications, 6, 7046 (2015) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 33 | Optical transport and manipulation of an ultracold atomic cloud using focus-tunable lenses Léonard, Julian, Lee, Moonjoo, Morales, Andrea, Karg, Thomas M., Esslinger, Tilman, Donner, Tobias Ulrik New Journal of Physics, 16, 093028 (2014) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 34 | Real-time observation of fluctuations at the driven-dissipative Dicke phase transition Brennecke, Ferdinand, Mottl, Rafael, Baumann, Kristian, Landig, Renate, Donner, Tobias, Esslinger, Tilman Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110, 11763 (2013) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 35 | Roton-Type Mode Softening in a Quantum Gas with Cavity-Mediated Long-Range Interactions Mottl, Rafael, Brennecke, Ferdinand, Baumann, Kristian, Landig, Renate, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Science, 336, 1570 (2012) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 36 | Sideband cooling of micromechanical motion to the quantum ground state Teufel, John D., Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Li, Dale, Harlow, Jennifer W., Allman, Mark, Cicak, Katarina, Sirois, Adam J., Whittaker, Jed D., Lehnert, Konrad W., Simmonds, Raymond W. Nature, 475, 359 (2011) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 37 | Nanomechanical motion measured with an imprecision below that at the standard quantum limit Teufel, John D., Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Castellanos-Beltran, Manuel, Harlow, Jennifer W., Lehnert, Konrad W. Nature Nanotechnology, 4, 820 (2009) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 38 | Dynamical coupling between a Bose–Einstein condensate and a cavity optical lattice Ritter, Stephan, Brennecke, Ferdinand, Guerlin, Christine, Baumann, Kristian, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Applied Physics B, 95, 213 (2009) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 39 | Cavity Optomechanics with a Bose-Einstein Condensate Ferdinand, Brennecke, Ritter, Stephan, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Esslinger, Tilman Science, 322, 235 (2008) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 40 | Time interval distributions of atoms in atomic beams Köhl, Michael, Öttl, Anton, Ritter, Stephan, Donner, Tobias, Bourdel, Thomas, Esslinger, Tilman Applied Physics B, 86, 391 (2007) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 41 | Cavity QED with a Bose-Einstein condensate Brennecke, Ferdinand, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Ritter, Stephan, Bourdel, Thomas, Koehl, Michael, Esslinger, Tilman Nature, 450, 268 (2007) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 42 | Critical behavior of a trapped interacting Bose gas Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Ritter, S., Bourdel, T., Oettl, A., Koehl, M., Esslinger, T. Science, 315, 1556 (2007) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 43 | Observing the formation of long-range order during Bose-Einstein condensation Ritter, Stephan, Oettl, Anton, Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Bourdel, Thomas, Koehl, Michael, Esslinger, Tilman Physical Review Letters, 98, 090402 (2007) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |
| 44 | Cavity QED detection of interfering matter waves Bourdel, T., Donner, Tobias Ulrik, Ritter, S., Ottl, A., Köhl, M., Esslinger, T. Physical Review A, 73, 043602 (2006) Paper: 🔗 link, ETHZ research collection: 🔗 link |