Quantum Physics

Researchers at ETH have demonstrated a new technique for carrying out sensitive quantum operations on atoms. In this technique, the control laser light is delivered directly inside a chip. This should make it possible to build large-scale quantum computers based on trapped atoms.

EPFL researchers, working at the boundary between classical and quantum physics, have developed a method for quickly spotting molecules with particularly interesting electron properties.

Summer Series: Science as a vocation. Christophe Galland, the head of EPFL’s Laboratory of Quantum and Nano-Optics, believes that teaching and research are inextricably linked. Let’s find out more about this physicist who’s eager to share his passion.

Celeste Carruth originally planned to be a musician. Now she is a physicist at ETH working to develop a new technique for controlling ions. As a member of the WEF’s Young Scientist community, she wants to help non-scientists better understand quantum physics.

A research team from Empa and EPFL has developed a molecular motor which consists of only 16 atoms and rotates reliably in one direction. It could allow energy harvesting at the atomic level. The special feature of the motor is that it moves exactly at the boundary between classical motion and quantum tunneling - and has revealed puzzling phenomena to researchers in the quantum realm.

Several technical advances have been achieved recently in the pursuit of powerful quantum computers. Now, Computer scientists from ETH Zurich have made an important breakthrough in the field of programming languages: their quantum language is the first of its kind that is as elegant, simple and safe as classical computer languages.