Develops colloidal semiconductor nanocrystal platforms for infrared detection and sensing. Directions: (1) HgTe and HgSe colloidal quantum dot mid-IR photodetectors operating at room temperature — record sensitivity for solution-processed IR sensors; (2) electro-optic modulation using nanocrystal films at ultrafast timescales; (3) fundamental optical and transport properties of doped nanocrystals. Primary application: low-cost infrared imaging and chemical sensing.
Edmund Harbord researches quantum communications, solid-state quantum optics, and topological photonic structures. Research: (1) single-photon sources based on solid-state emitters (quantum dots, colour centres); (2) topological photonic crystal structures for robust quantum light propagation; (3) quantum communication protocols. Bridges photonics engineering with quantum networking.
Hare works on whispering-gallery-mode microlasers and microcavities within LKB's quantum-optics research line, exploring high-Q optical microresonators for fundamental light-matter coupling studies and sensing applications.
Hau is renowned for slowing light to bicycle speed and then stopping and coherently storing optical pulses in a Bose-Einstein condensate via electromagnetically induced transparency; her current program extends this quantum-optics platform to couple light-driven photosynthetic proteins with engineered nanostructures, bridging fundamental photon physics and biophysics.
Heidmann is a founding member of LKB's cavity-optomechanics group, whose work on radiation-pressure effects, ponderomotive squeezing, and quantum-limited displacement/force measurement underpins the lab's broader precision-metrology and gravitational-wave-adjacent quantum-optics programme.
Explores boundary between condensed-matter physics and quantum sensing using superconductor-semiconductor circuits. Directions: (1) gate-tunable superconductor-semiconductor parametric amplifier for quantum-limited readout (PRA 2023); (2) room-temperature capacitive strong coupling to mechanical motion for electromechanical sensing (Nano Letters 2025); (3) quantum criticality in Josephson junction arrays; (4) synthetic Hamiltonians in hybrid SC-semi devices probing hidden material behavior. IST Austria → Microsoft → JILA → UChicago Nov 2023.
Studies optical quantum science in solid-state systems with emphasis on photonic integration. Directions: (1) photonic integration of NV-center spin qubits in diamond nanophotonic circuits for scalable quantum sensing arrays; (2) 2D semiconductor (TMD) nanophotonic devices exploiting valley and spin-valley degrees of freedom; (3) engineering light-matter interactions for quantum information and sensing in nanoscale optical cavities. Key goal: scalable on-chip quantum sensing platforms.
Hobson co-leads the Ultracold Strontium Laboratory within the AION atom-interferometer collaboration, developing squeezed strontium atomic ensembles and quantum-non-demolition measurement techniques to beat the standard quantum limit in long-baseline atom-interferometric searches for dark matter and gravitational waves, alongside a parallel programme on ultra-precise, shock-resistant optical clocks. Actively recruiting postdocs as the group builds out its cold-atom laboratories.
Hong runs Hybrid Optical Quantum Technologies within Stuttgart's FMQ institute: optomechanical and opto-mechanical-spin hybrid devices used for quantum sensing and for tests of quantum mechanics at larger mass scales. Work covers cavity/phononic-crystal optomechanics driven toward the quantum regime (ground-state cooling, back-action-evading and quantum-limited displacement/force readout) and the coupling of diamond spin defects to mechanical motion, including levitated-diamond spin-mechanics -- where an NV inside a levitated particle both senses and controls the particle's motion. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), this is the same colour-centre physics, deliberately hybridized with mechanics: the sensing target shifts from magnetic field to force, acceleration and displacement, and the group sits alongside Wrachtrup's NV programme in the same building, which is a considerable practical advantage.
The Hosseini Lab (Quantum Atom Optics) investigates light–atom interactions in rare-earth crystals, room-temperature gases, and nanophotonic structures. Directions: (1) Quantum optical memories in Tm³⁺:YAG and Er³⁺-doped solids using atomic frequency comb (AFC) and gradient echo memory (GEM) protocols for telecom-wavelength quantum networking; demonstrated efficient storage of multi-dimensional telecom photons (Optica Quantum 2025, Phys. Rev. Appl. 2025); (2) Cooperative/collective light–matter interactions in periodic rare-earth ion arrays in nano/micro-photonic structures (collaboration with Oak Ridge NL, Aydin group) for enhanced quantum memory coherence; (3) Quantum squeezed light — applied to enhanced thermoreflectance sensing of electronic hotspots (Appl. Phys. Lett. 2024); (4) Coherent levitation of macroscopic sensors (DARPA YFA 2024, $500k): magnetic and optical trapping of mm-scale objects as high-Q oscillators for magnetometry, vibrational sensing, accelerometry, inertial, and force sensing. Lab actively seeking postdocs in integrated photonics, quantum memory, and levitation sensing (2024–2025). ASEE Curtis W. McGraw Research Award 2026.