Basel Universität
Departement für Physik
Departement für Physik

Prof. Dr. Philipp Treutlein

Assistant Professor of Experimental Physics (tenure track)
Department of Physics
University of Basel
Klingelbergstrasse 82
CH-4056 Basel


office 2.13
tel.: ++41 (0)61 267 3766 (office)
e-mail:
research group: http://atom.physik.unibas.ch/


administrative assistant
Germaine Weaver
Tel.: ++41 (0)61 267 37 67
Fax: ++41 (0)61 267 37 95
E-Mail:



Short Biography

Philipp Treutlein, born in Reutlingen in 1976, studied physics at the Universities of Konstanz and Stanford in 1996-2002. At Stanford University, he worked in the laboratory of Steven Chu on laser cooling of ultracold atoms and atom interferometry. Back in Konstanz, he joined the group of Markus Oberthaler for his diploma thesis, investigating Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices. Subsequently, Philipp joined the group of Jakob Reichel and Theodor W. Hänsch at LMU Munich and the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, where he received his doctorate in 2008. In his thesis, he experimentally demonstrated for the first time the coherent manipulation of atoms on atom chips and realized a chip-based atomic clock. In addition, he made proposals for quantum computing and for the coupling of atoms to solid-state nanosystems.

Philipp became the leader of the atom chip group in the laboratory of Ted Hänsch in 2005. Together with a new team, he built a chip-based atom interferometer. In 2009, the group was the first to generate multi-particle entangled states on an atom chip. In a second project, the group investigates interactions of ultracold atoms with micro- and nanomechanical oscillators and has recently used a Bose-Einstein condensate to read out an AFM cantilever. In February 2010, Philipp was appointed as a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Basel, where he continues his research on quantum optics and ultracold atoms.



Research Summary

Our research focuses on the quantum physics of ultracold atoms and on their interactions with solid-state micro- and nanostructures. The main experimental tool is an atom chip, which allows us to laser cool, trap, and coherently manipulate ultracold atoms at micrometer distance from a chip surface. We use tailored potentials generated by microstructures on the chip to perform quantum atom optics experiments with Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs).

Of particular interest is the generation of spin-squeezed and many-particle entangled states of the BEC, which are useful for quantum metrology and quantum information processing in a compact, robust and scalable setup. On the other hand, trapped atoms can be used as sensitive probes for surface properties and for the dynamics of on-chip solid-state systems such as tiny mechanical cantilevers or superconducting devices. One goal is to investigate hybrid quantum systems, in which ultracold atoms and a solid-state system interact coherently. Such systems enable intriguing experiments at the interface of quantum optics and solid-state physics and may find applications as precision sensors, in quantum information processing, and in investigations of the quantum-classical boundary.



Selected Publications

  1. M. F. Riedel, P. Böhi, Yun Li, T. W. Hänsch, A. Sinatra, and P. Treutlein, Atom-chip-based generation of entanglement for quantum metrology, Nature 464, 1170 (2010).
  2. D. Hunger, S. Camerer, T. W. Hänsch, D. König, J. P. Kotthaus, J. Reichel, and P. Treutlein, Resonant Coupling of a Bose-Einstein Condensate to a Micromechanical Oscillator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 143002 (2010).
  3. P. Böhi, M. F. Riedel, J. Hoffrogge, J. Reichel, T. W. Hänsch, and P. Treutlein, Coherent manipulation of Bose-Einstein condensates with state-dependent microwave potentials on an atom chip, Nature Physics 5, 592 (2009).
  4. P. Treutlein, D. Hunger, S. Camerer, T. W. Hänsch, and J. Reichel, Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to a nanomechanical resonator on an atom chip, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 140403 (2007).
  5. P. Treutlein, P. Hommelhoff, T. Steinmetz, T. W. Hänsch, and J. Reichel, Coherence in Microchip Traps, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 203005 (2004).
  6. P. Treutlein, K. Y. Chung, and S. Chu, High-brightness atom source for atomic fountains, Phys. Rev. A63, 051401 (2001).