> D-PHYSDepartment of Physics > IQEInstitute for Quantum Electronics

QO Group

Tilman Esslinger
▾ Administration

• Stefanie Ackermann

▾ Engineering

• Alexander C. Frank
• Ben Bodmer

▾ Lattice Team
▾ Cavity Team
▾ Lithium Team
▾ Impact Team

Prof. Dr. Tilman Esslinger

ETH Zürich
Institute for Quantum Electronics
Quantum Optics Group
Otto Stern Weg 1, HPF D4
8093 Zürich
Switzerland

Tel.: +41 44 63-32340

Email: esslinger@phys.ethz.ch

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Research Interest

Quantum simulation
Quantum many-body physics
Quantum gases, optical lattices and cavity QED
Topology, transport, non-equilibrium physics

Short CV

Since October 2001: Full professor in the Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Major scientific accomplishments: Since my appointment as full professor at ETH Zurich in October 2001 I built up one of the internationally leading research labs in the field of quantum gases and quantum simulation. We pioneered the research agenda of analog quantum simulation by synthetically creating and studying key models in quantum many-body physics. We have initiated and established three main research directions:
• We carried out seminal experiments with quantum gases in optical lattices to explore Fermi–Hubbard physics and beyond, among them the first realizations of a fermionic Mott insulator, a quantum-gas analogue of graphene and the topological Haldane model, as well as the first observation of quantum magnetism in a Fermi–Hubbard model. In most recent work we realized a driven Fermi–Hubbard model and observed enhancement and sign reversal of magnetic correlations, and demonstrated a first step towards quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories.
• We pioneered the study of Bose–Einstein condensates in cavity-QED settings, used it to provide a link to the physics of cavity-optomechanics, and realized the Dicke quantum phase transition. The cavity induces long-range interactions, which we very recently combined with a short-range interacting Bose–Hubbard model, leading to the observation of a first-order phase transition. Recently we observed a supersolid phase breaking a continuous symmetry, as well as the associated phase and amplitude modes.
• A very recent and new line of research is the measurement of conductances in quantum gases, where we also demonstrated the equivalent of the thermoelectric effect and observed for the first time quantized conductance in neutral matter.

1995-2001: Group leader in T.W. Hänsch's laboratory at the University of Munich
Major scientific accomplishments: demonstration of the quantum phase transition between a superfluid and a Mott-insulating state, measurement of the long-range order in a Bose-Einstein condensate, pioneering work on atom lasers

1991-1995: Research assistant, Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching
Major scientific accomplishments: first demonstration of subrecoil laser cooling of rubidium atoms, pioneering work on laser cooling and atom optics in near-resonant optical lattices, demonstration of a mirror for neutral atoms exploiting a surface plasmon resonance

1995: PhD in Physics, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany

1991: Diploma in Physics, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany.

Institutional Responsibilities

2015 –	Member of Research Commission ETH Zurich
2013 – 2015	Chair, Department of Physics at ETH Zurich
2011 –	Vice-Director, National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Quantum Science and Technology (QSIT), https://nccr-qsit.ethz.ch
2009 – 2013	Vice-Chair, Department of Physics at ETH Zurich
2008 –	Heading search committees as delegate of the President of ETH Zurich
2005 – 2007	Head of Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich
2004 – 2008	Member of Strategic Planning Commission of ETH Zurich

Community Services

• Member of ERC panels (2012, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021)
• Member of advisory board Excellence Project TopDyn, University Mainz (since 2019)
• Member of the External Advisory Board for Physics Department, Oxford University (since 2020)
• Member of International Review Panel for Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore (2011)

Prizes, Honours, Patents

2022	Honorary Degree from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland
2021	Senior BEC Award sponsored by TOPTICA Photonics AG (shared with Rudolf Grimm)
2016	Ugo Fano Lecturer, James Franck Institute, University of Chicago
2016	Senior Research Visitor Keble College, Oxford
2014	Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society
2014 - 19, 2021	Listed as "Highly cited researcher" by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics
2011	37th Hanan Rosenthal Memorial Lecture, Yale University
2010 & 2017	ERC Advanced Grants
2001	Guest professorship at University of Innsbruck, Austria
2000	Phillip Morris Research Prize (shared with T.W. Hänsch and I. Bloch)
2002	US patent on "Device and method for generating and manipulating coherent matter waves"

Prizes for PhD students in my group :

Henning Moritz: Prize for General Physics of the Swiss Physical Society 2005
Thilo Stöferle: ETH medal and Chorafas Prize 2006
Ferdinand Brennecke: ETH medal for outstanding doctoral thesis 2010
Daniel Greif: Shortlisted for DAMOP Thesis Prize 2014
Gregor Jotzu: Prize for General Physics of the Swiss Physical Society 2015
Sebastian Krinner: ETH medal and Chorafas prize 2015
Renate Landig: ETH medal for outstanding doctoral thesis 2016
Nishant Dogra: ETH medal for outstanding doctoral thesis 2019

Organisation of Scientific Meetings

2015, -18	Co-Organizer, "Quantum Systems and Technology", Monte Verità, Switzerland
2014, -16, -18	Co-Organizer, "Coherent Control of Complex Quantum Systems", Okinawa, Japan
2013	Co-Organizer, "Quantum many body systems out of equilibrium", Dresden, Germany
2013	Co-Organizer, workshop on "Optical Lattice Emulators and Beyond", Aspen, US
2011	Co-Organizer, workshop on "Modeling Materials With Cold Gases", Zurich, Switzerland
2011	Chair, 5th biannual conference on Bose–Einstein Condensation, Sant Feliu, Spain
2009	Co-Organizer, "Ab-initio modeling of cold gases", Zurich, Switzerland
2009	Co-Organizer, "Quantum Engineering", Monte Verità, Switzerland
2009	Vice-Chair, 4th biannual conference on Bose–Einstein Condensation, Sant Feliu, Spain
2005	Chair, "Control and Manipulation of Quantum Systems", Monte Verità, Switzerland
2002	Chair, European Research Conference on Quantum Optics, Sant Feliu, Spain
2001	Vice-Chair, European Research Conference on Quantum Optics, Sant Feliu, Spain
1999	DPG Symposium "Laser cooling and Bose–Einstein condensation", Heidelberg, Germany

Publications

Summary: Since 1992 more than 120 peer-reviewed publications, cited more than 32,000 times in total; h-index: 70 (Source: Google Scholar). 12 research papers in Nature and 9 in Science. According to InCites Essential Science Indicators (Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics), 9 of the papers we published since 2011 are "Highly Cited Papers". Our realisation of the Haldane model [G. Jotzu, et al., Nature 515, 237 (2014)], which is an iconic concept in topological condensed matter physics [Haldane, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2015; 1988], featured prominently in the final paragraph of the advanced information of the 2016 Nobel Prize.