Description: Large-momentum-transfer laser pulses act as beam splitters and mirrors for ultracold atomic wavepackets; used for gravimetry, inertial sensing, dark matter, and gravitational wave detection.
Landragin directs SYRTE and its Cold Atom Interferometry and Inertial Sensors team, which develops light-pulse atom interferometers as absolute gravimeters and gyroscopes: the Cold Atom Gravimeter (CAG), whose single-laser pyramid-reflector design he co-invented and commercialized through the start-up Muquans (now Absolute Quantum Gravimeter, AQG), and continuously-operating cold-atom gyroscopes reaching record joint sensitivity. Applications span geodesy, hydrology, volcano monitoring and inertial navigation. He received the CNRS Innovation Medal in 2020.
Mueller's group performs light-pulse atom interferometry at extreme precision to test the equivalence principle, measure the fine-structure constant, and search for new physics, developing techniques (large momentum transfer, squeezed-atom methods) that also underlie compact atom-interferometric gravimeters and gyroscopes. The lab is actively recruiting postdocs.
Franck Pereira dos Santos (CNRS DR, SYRTE) develops dual-species (Rb/Cs) atom interferometers and gravimeters with the highest accuracy. Research: (1) cold-atom gravimeters for absolute gravity measurement; (2) dual Rb/Cs fountain for equivalence principle tests; (3) interleaved interferometry to eliminate dead-time and aliasing noise; (4) quantum optimal control for Raman/Bragg pulse sequences. Key SYRTE inertial sensor PI.
Prentiss's group works on cold-atom light-pulse interferometry for compact, potentially fieldable inertial sensors (gravimeters/gyroscopes), alongside a parallel biophysics program using optical tweezers and single-molecule methods to study DNA and cell mechanics. The atom-interferometric sensing work is squarely in the quantum-sensing gravimetry/inertial-navigation tradition alongside cold-atom-gradiometer and atom-chip clock efforts elsewhere in the field.
Schneider leads the Many-Body Quantum Dynamics group. His primary work is on optical lattice quantum simulation with ultracold atoms (quasicrystalline and kagome potentials, non-equilibrium dynamics), but he also co-leads a significant quantum sensing arm: he is a core Cambridge PI in the AION collaboration building a 10 m strontium single-photon atom interferometer at Oxford and contributing to MAGIS-100 at Fermilab, targeting mid-band gravitational wave detection and ultralight dark matter. In 2026 he co-leads the UKRI-funded SEQUIN project, a hybrid quantum-classical interferometer array combining atom interferometry with seismometers to probe gravitational waves and Earth's interior.
Prof. Shahriar's group uses atomic and optical systems for precision measurement and quantum information. Key directions: (1) White-light cavities — using anomalous dispersion media inside optical cavities to create a bandwidth-extended cavity enabling broadband gravitational wave detector sensitivity enhancement beyond current LIGO designs; (2) Superluminal (fast-light) gyroscopes — anomalous-dispersion-enhanced ring-laser gyroscopes for measuring the Lense-Thirring frame-dragging effect as a test of general relativity, with >10⁶× sensitivity enhancement over conventional Sagnac gyroscopes; (3) Quantum memories and computers using trapped atomic ensembles (PRISM protocol); (4) Ultra-low-light nonlinear optics with nanofibers and atoms for optical switching and quantum logic; (5) Holographic and polarimetric image processing. Member of LIGO Scientific Collaboration; contributed to GW170817 binary neutron star merger discovery. AT&T Professor of ECE.
Christoph Westbrook co-heads the Quantum Gases group at LCF/IOGS. Research: (1) metastable helium (He*) BEC and ultracold atomic gases — atom optics, Bose-Hubbard physics, Anderson localization; (2) correlated atom pair production via four-wave mixing for quantum atom optics sensing; (3) atom laser and matter-wave interferometry. The group pioneered the He* BEC and uses correlated atom pairs for quantum sensing analogous to two-photon quantum optics.
Xu works on frequency-dependent squeezed-light injection for quantum-enhanced gravitational-wave detection at LIGO and on trapped-cavity atom interferometry for precision tests of fundamental physics, bridging quantum optics and atom-based inertial sensing.
Tarik Yefsah's group at LKB studies strongly interacting ultracold Fermi gases. Research: (1) Fermi gas mixtures — quantum simulation of condensed matter phenomena (BCS-BEC crossover, Fermi polaron); (2) quantum gas microscope experiments imaging individual atoms in optical lattices; (3) novel quantum phases in Fermi-Hubbard systems ('fermionic waltz' publication 2026). Relevant to quantum simulation and quantum gas-based sensing.