Brune leads the Circular Rydberg Atom / Cavity QED group at LKB (Collège de France site), continuing the work of Serge Haroche (Nobel 2012). Note: Brune is employed by ENS, not Sorbonne Université; postdoc contracts are typically ENS/CNRS. Research directions: (1) Circular Rydberg atoms — atoms in extremely high principal quantum number states (n~50) with extremely long radiative lifetimes (~30 ms) and large dipole moments; (2) Cavity QED quantum sensing — single circular atoms probe the microwave field in a superconducting cavity photon-by-photon via quantum non-demolition measurement; (3) Quantum state engineering — generating Fock states, Schrödinger cat states, and entangled atom-field states in the cavity; (4) Tests of quantum complementarity — observing decoherence of mesoscopic superpositions in real time as a probe of quantum-to-classical transition. The 'quantum radio receiver' using single atoms to sense individual microwave photons is a landmark quantum sensing demonstration.
Michel Brune leads the Rydberg atoms / cavity QED group at LKB. Research: (1) circular Rydberg atoms trapped in high-finesse microwave cavities — quantum non-demolition measurement of photons, quantum state engineering; (2) fundamental quantum optics: decoherence, entanglement, quantum jumps, Schrödinger cat states; (3) quantum sensing of cavity fields with single atoms as probes. This group pioneered cavity QED experiments leading to the 2012 Nobel Prize (Haroche). Brune heads the laboratory.
Dotsenko is a permanent member of LKB's Rydberg-atom cavity-QED team (successor to Haroche/Brune's circular-Rydberg-atom programme), using long-lived circular Rydberg states strongly coupled to microwave photons in high-Q cavities for quantum non-demolition measurement, entanglement generation, and microwave-photon-number quantum sensing.
Gleyzes is a CNRS researcher in the Rydberg Atoms team at LKB (successor to Serge Haroche's cavity-QED group), where he achieved the first quantum non-demolition detection of a single microwave photon. The team now prepares non-classical states of circular Rydberg atoms as probes for electric- and magnetic-field sensing below the standard quantum limit, uses quantum optimal control to navigate large Rydberg Hilbert spaces, and has demonstrated millisecond-lived circular states at room temperature, a route toward practical Rydberg-atom quantum sensors and simulators.
Kuhn leads the Atom-Photon Connection group, working at the single-atom, single-photon level. Key research thrusts: (1) deterministic generation of indistinguishable single photons from single atoms in high-finesse cavities, with cluster-state production for one-way quantum computing; (2) development of integrated fibre-tip microcavities with small radius-of-curvature for >50% photon capture efficiency and direct fibre coupling; (3) single-photon quantum memories using cavity-coupled atom systems; and (4) optical trapping of single atoms in the Lamb-Dicke regime for quantum simulation and networking. The group uses reinforcement learning for optimal quantum control of atom-cavity systems.
Julien Laurat's quantum networks group develops atomic interfaces for long-distance quantum communication and sensing. Research: (1) cold atom quantum memory using DLCZ-protocol and EIT — multi-mode storage, entanglement generation; (2) nanofibre-trapped atom light interface for quantum networks; (3) quantum memory for telecom-band photons using rare-earth crystals. CNRS Silver Medal 2026. ERC Consolidator grant. Highly relevant to quantum sensing via atomic sensors and quantum network nodes.
Mabuchi's group studies continuous quantum measurement and feedback in cavity-QED and photonic circuit platforms, developing the theory and hardware for real-time quantum-limited monitoring and control of light-matter systems, foundational to many quantum-sensing readout schemes.
Sayrin works on circular Rydberg-atom cavity QED at LKB, developing microwave-photon quantum-non-demolition detection and feedback-based quantum control protocols that build on the cavity-QED foundations pioneered by Haroche and Brune's team.