About me

The research of my group is concerned with the theory of nanostructures. These structures consist of several thousands to millions of atoms, and have sizes of a few nanometers in each spatial direction. For such small objects the physical properties can differ appreciably from those of larger pieces of matter.

• In cooperation with the experimental nanooptics group in Graz, we study the optical properties of metallic nanoparticles. Due to the different length scales, namely nanometers for the metallic nanoparticles and micrometers for the light, the light-matter coupling is in the nearfield regime and becomes drastically enhanced. This allows to tailor the optical properties of light emitters (molecules, collodial quantum dots, etc.) placed in the vicinity of metallic nanoparticles, which might be beneficial for novel biosensor. applications. 
• In semiconductor quantum dots, quantum effects are known to dominate the optical and transport properties. Our group is particularly interested in possible quantum computation and quantum communication applications. We investigate how in these structures quantum coherence can be created and manipulated, and how it decays through interactions with the solid-state environment. 
• Another research activity has been concerned with atom chips. Here, current flowing through microstructured wires mounted on a solid-state chip produces magnetic fields that allow to trap and manipulate ultracold atoms or Bose Einstein condensates in the vicinity of the chip. Thermal current noise in the metallic wires causes magnetic field fluctuations at the positions of the atoms, and introduces decoherence. We have shown that superconducting atom chips would allow to almost completely suppress such decoherence. Other work has been devoted to optimal quantum control of Bose Einstein condensates in such atom chips.