Hannes Bernien Labs
Quantum Science and Technology Atom-by-Atom
Together with Francesco Cesa from the group of Hannes Pichler, Peng won the IQOQI Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship in Quantum Science. The award is given to outstanding experimentalist and theorists and encourages them to take on a leading role for a project. Congratulations to both Francesco and Peng from the Bernien Lab!
On August 25th 2025, our experiments arrived in Innsbruck. After leaving by plane from Chicago on the 18th of August, they first arrived in Luxembourg the next day from where they travelled to Linz to clear customs.
On June 3, 2025, Hannes Bernien and Hannes Pichler gave their inaugural lectures at the University of Innsbruck, presenting their research programs to a large and interested audience. Both physicists were jointly appointed by the University and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and now serve as professors at the University of Innsbruck and scientific directors at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI).
Our work on dual-species Rydberg arrays has been published in Nature Physics! Congratulations to the whole team! In the work we show the first Rydberg interactions between two atomic in an atomic array. There are multiple interaction regimes that can accessed and we demonstrate a strongly enhanced dual-species interaction via a Förster resonance. Further, we use the interaction to demonstrate a two-qubit gate and do quantum non-demolition measurements useing one atomic species as an auxiliary.
The BernienLab spent one week in Innsbruck to get to know their future environment. It was a fantastic week full of scientific exchange with the quantum community in Innsbruck, as well as social exchange. A picturesque hiking trip and a taste of the local cuisine rounded off a great trip. We will certainly come again!