Quantum Optics Group

Group leader: Péter DOMOKOS

Website: optics.szfki.kfki.hu

Peter Domokos, Thomas W. Clark, András Dombi, Dávid Jakab, Árpád Kurkó, Nikolett Német, Dávid Nagy, András Vukics, Francis I. B.  Williams

The research focus is cavity quantum electrodynamics and ultracold atoms. We study the light-matter interaction in the ultimate limit when both components are dynamical quantum systems.  

The group takes part in the Quantum Technology Program within the framework of the National Excellence Program of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office launched in 2017. Within the HunQuTech Project the aim is the realization of quantum technological applications based on atoms and photons. They develop an atom-photon interface by means of trapped cold atoms or a Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to the radiation field of a high-finesse optical resonator in which the quantum information can be transfered between photons and atoms. Quantum information can be stored for long times in atomic hyperfine states so that this system provides for the best writable  ``quantum memory'' to date.  The other objective is the use of Bose-Einstein condensates, being a system controlled in all degrees of freedom at the level of fundamental quantum noise, in high-precision measurements based on matter wave interference. On the theoretical side, they study critical phenomena and phase transitions for which the description invokes the methods of quantum many-body problems.