Tilman Esslinger is a German

experimental physicist Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and o ...

. He is

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and works in the field of ultracold quantum gases and

optical lattice An optical lattice is formed by the Interference (wave propagation), interference of counter-propagating laser beams, creating a spatially periodic intensity pattern. The resulting periodic scalar potential, potential may trap neutral atoms via ...

Biography

Tilman Esslinger received his PhD in physics from the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

and the

Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics The Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (abbreviation: MPQ; ) is a part of the Max Planck Society which operates 87 research facilities in Germany. The institute is located in Garching, Germany, which in turn is located 10 km north-eas ...

, Germany, in 1995. In his doctoral research he worked under the supervision of Theodor Hänsch on subrecoil

laser cooling Laser cooling includes several techniques where atoms, molecules, and small mechanical systems are cooled with laser light. The directed energy of lasers is often associated with heating materials, e.g. laser cutting, so it can be counterintuit ...

and

s. He then build up his own group in Hänsch’s lab and conducted pioneering work on

atom laser An atom laser is a coherent state of propagating atoms. They are created out of a Bose–Einstein condensate of atoms that are output coupled using various techniques. Much like an optical laser, an atom laser is a coherent beam that behaves lik ...

s, observed long-range phase coherence in a

Bose–Einstein condensate In condensed matter physics, a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low Density, densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero#Relation with Bose–Einste ...

, and realized the superfluid to Mott-insulator transition with a

Bose gas An ideal Bose gas is a quantum-mechanical phase of matter, analogous to a classical ideal gas. It is composed of bosons, which have an integer value of spin and abide by Bose–Einstein statistics. The statistical mechanics of bosons were deve ...

in an optical lattice. Following his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

, Esslinger was in October 2001 appointed full professor at

, Switzerland, where he pioneered one-dimensional atomic quantum gases, Fermi–Hubbard models with atoms, a quantum-gas analogue of the topological Haldane model and the merger of quantum gas experiments with

cavity quantum electrodynamics Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics (cavity QED) is the study of the interaction between light confined in a reflective cavity and atoms or other particles, under conditions where the quantum nature of photons is significant. It could in principle be ...

Research

The work of Esslinger and his group has stimulated an interdisciplinary exchange between the condensed-matter and quantum-gas communities. Recent notable results include the development of a

quantum simulator Quantum simulators permit the study of a quantum system in a programmable fashion. In this instance, simulators are special purpose devices designed to provide insight about specific physics problems. Note: This manuscript is a contribution o ...

for

graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...

, setting up of a cavity-optomechanical system in which the Dicke

quantum phase transition In physics, a quantum phase transition (QPT) is a phase transition between different quantum phases ( phases of matter at zero temperature). Contrary to classical phase transitions, quantum phase transitions can only be accessed by varying a phys ...

to a superradiant state has been observed for the first time, as well as creation of a cold-atom analogue of mesoscopic conductors and observation of the onset of

superfluidity Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two ...

in that system. Esslinger received a Phillip Morris Research Prize (shared with Theodor Hänsch and

Immanuel Bloch Immanuel Bloch (born 16 November 1972, Fulda) is a German experimental physicist. His research is focused on the investigation of quantum many-body systems using ultracold atomic and molecular quantum gases. Bloch is known for his work on atoms ...

) in 2000 and currently holds an ERC advanced grant. He is an author on more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, which have been cited more than 8000 times (as of March 2013).

References

External links

Group homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Esslinger, Tilman German quantum physicists 21st-century German physicists Academic staff of ETH Zurich Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Physical Society