Prof. Dr. Lukas Novotny
ETH Zurich, Photonics Laboratory
Venue: Wave Auditorium, Masdar Office
11th March 2025, 4:00PM - 5:00PM (GST)
| Title: | Quantum Control of a Levitated Nanoparticle |
| Abstract: | We use levitated nanoparticles to explore the quantum-classical boundary and to investigate the limits of measurement precision. To this end, we utilize the many degrees of freedom of these nanoparticles, including translations, librations, rotations and vibrations. I will report on our recent progress in controlling these modes and discuss applications in sensing and metrology. |
| Bio: | Lukas Novotny has been a Professor of Photonics at the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering since 2012. He has completed a diploma in electrical engineering at ETH Zurich in 1992 and went on to obtain a PhD (Dr. sc. techn.) from the same university in 1996. For his PhD thesis Light Propagation and Light Confinement in Near-field Optics, he collaborated with IBM Research Division in Ruschlikon. In his professional career, Lukas Novotny was a research fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA (1996-1999) before becoming an assistant and subsequently associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, USA (1999-2007). In 2007 he was appointed professor of optics and physics at Rochester. Before joining ETH Zurich, he spent a sabbatical year at ICFO, the Institute de Cienciès Fotòniques in Barcelona, Spain and has since then been a Distinguished Invited Professor there. Professor Novotny’s expertise lies in the broader fields of photonics and optoelectronics. His main research interest is understanding and controlling light-matter interactions on a nanometer scale with applications ranging from ultrasensitive detection and metrology to efficient and directional photon emission. |