Bernien Lab
Quantum Science and Technology Atom-by-Atom
The Bernien Lab studies quantum physics by assembling large quantum systems from individual atoms in optical tweezers. This platform is ideal both for research into fundamental questions and for the realisation of quantum technologies such as quantum computers and quantum networks. In quantum information processing, the laboratory is doing pioneering work with Rydberg arrays made of two different types of atoms, which offer unique possibilities for quantum computers and simulators. In the field of quantum networks, they are realising photonic interfaces for atoms based on cavity arrays on a chip.
Our research interests include:
- Quantum Computing: We use large arrays of individually trapped atoms as quantum processors and find new ways to for quantum information protocols.
- Quantum Networks: We combine atomic arrays with photonic interfaces on chip to form a novel architecture for a high-speed quantum network of processing nodes.
- Quantum Many-Body Physics: Both Rydberg interaction and photon-mediated interactions between a large number of atoms give rise to novel quantum many-body phenomena.
Hannes Bernien
Professor for Experimental Physics
PhD 2014, Technical University Delft, The Netherlands
Gruppenseite
Zugehörigkeiten
Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck
Hannes Bernien did his undergraduate studies at the University of Hannover in Germany with abroad studies at Seoul University, Korea, and Peking University, China. From 2010–2015 he did a PhD at the Technical University in Delft, the Netherlands, where he and co-workers performed the first loophole-free Bell test. After a postdoc at Harvard in the group of Mikhail Lukin, Bernien set up his own group at the University of Chicago as an Assistant Professor. In 2025 he became full Professor in experimental physics at the University of Innsbruck and a scientific director at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Among Bernien’s awards are the Gordon Memorial Speakership 2024, the Klung Wilhelmy Science Award (2023), the New Horizon in Physics Prize by the Breakthrough Foundation (2022), an NSF Career Award (2024), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2021), and the International Quantum Technology Young Scientist Award by IOP (2020).