Immanuel Bloch (born 16 November 1972,
Fulda
Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival.
History ...
) 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 ...
. His research is focused on the investigation of quantum
many-body
The many-body problem is a general name for a vast category of physical problems pertaining to the properties of microscopic systems made of many interacting particles. ''Microscopic'' here implies that quantum mechanics has to be used to provid ...
systems using ultracold atomic and molecular quantum gases. Bloch is known for his work on atoms in artificial crystals of light,
optical lattice
An optical lattice is formed by the interference of counter-propagating laser beams, creating a spatially periodic polarization pattern. The resulting periodic potential may trap neutral atoms via the Stark shift. Atoms are cooled and congrega ...
s, especially the first realization of a quantum phase transition from a weakly interacting
superfluid
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 ...
to a strongly interacting
Mott insulating state of matter.
Career
Bloch studied physics at the University of Bonn in 1995, followed by a one-year research visit to
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
.
He obtained his PhD in 2000 working under
Theodor W. Hänsch
Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch (; born 30 October 1941) is a German physicist. He received one-third of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for "contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb t ...
at the Ludwig-Maximilian's University in Munich.
The thesis title was ''Atomlaser und Phasenkohärenz atomarer Bose-Einstein-Kondensate''. As a junior group leader, he continued in Munich and started his work on ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices. In 2003, he moved to a full professor position in experimental physics at the
University of Mainz
The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stu ...
, where he stayed until 2009.
In 2008 he was appointed scientific director of the newly founded division on ''Quantum Many-Body Systems'' at the
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics
The Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (abbreviation: MPQ; german: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik) is a part of the Max Planck Society which operates 87 research facilities in Germany.
The institute is located in Garching, Germany, ...
in Garching.
Since 2012 he has been vice-dean at the department of physics of
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
and managing director of the
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics
The Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (abbreviation: MPQ; german: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik) is a part of the Max Planck Society which operates 87 research facilities in Germany.
The institute is located in Garching, Germany, ...
since 2012.
Research
Bloch's work focuses on the investigation of quantum many-body system using
ultracold atoms
Ultracold atoms are atoms that are maintained at temperatures close to 0 kelvin (absolute zero), typically below several tens of microkelvin (µK). At these temperatures the atom's quantum-mechanical properties become important.
To reach such low ...
stored in
optical lattice
An optical lattice is formed by the interference of counter-propagating laser beams, creating a spatially periodic polarization pattern. The resulting periodic potential may trap neutral atoms via the Stark shift. Atoms are cooled and congrega ...
potentials. Among other things, he is known for the realization of a
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 ...
from a
superfluid
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 ...
to a
Mott insulator
Mott insulators are a class of materials that are expected to conduct electricity according to conventional band theories, but turn out to be insulators (particularly at low temperatures). These insulators fail to be correctly described by band ...
,
in which ultracold atoms were brought into the regime of strong correlations for the first time, thereby allowing one to mimic the behaviour
strongly correlated material
Strongly correlated materials are a wide class of compounds that include insulators and electronic materials, and show unusual (often technologically useful) electronic and magnetic properties, such as metal-insulator transitions, heavy fermion ...
s. The experimental ideas were based on a theoretical proposal by
Peter Zoller
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
and
Ignacio Cirac. His other works includes the observation of a
Tonks–Girardeau gas In physics, a Tonks–Girardeau gas is a Bose gas in which the repulsive interactions between bosonic particles confined to one dimension dominate the system's physics. It is named after physicists Marvin D. Girardeau and Lewi Tonks. It is not a B ...
of strongly interacting bosons in one dimensions, the detection of collapses and revivals
of the wavefunction of 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 densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero (−273.15 °C or −459.67&n ...
because of interactions, and the use of quantum noise correlations to observe
Hanbury-Brown and Twiss bunching and antibunching
for bosonic and fermionic atoms (simultaneously with the group of
Alain Aspect
Alain Aspect (; born 15 June 1947) is a French physicist noted for his experimental work on quantum entanglement.
Aspect was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, "for experiments with entangl ...
). More recently, his research team was able to realize single-atom resolved imaging
and addressing
of ultracold atoms held in an optical lattice. Much of hiss related work was carried out in the group of
Markus Greiner.
Awards
In 2005 he was presented with the International Commission of Optics Prize. In 2011, he received the EPS Prize for Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics
of the
European Physical Society
The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...
.
In 2013, Bloch was awarded the
Körber European Science Prize and the International Senior BEC Award. For the year 2015 he received the
Harvey Prize
Harvey Prize is an annual Israeli award for breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as contributions to peace in the Middle East granted by the Technion in Haifa.
History
The prize is named for industrialist and inventor Leo Harvey. T ...
from Israel's Technion Institute.
Harvey Prize Laureates
/ref>
He is a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...
and an external member of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is a Canadian-based global research organization that brings together teams of top researchers from around the world to address important and complex questions. It was founded in 1982 and is s ...
.
References
External links
CV
Immanuel Bloch at LMU and MPQ
Group Homepage
Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics
Fakultät für Physik, LMU Munich
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch, Immanuel
Quantum physicists
21st-century German physicists
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners
1972 births
Living people
People from Fulda
University of Bonn alumni
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
Max Planck Institute directors
Fellows of the American Physical Society