Skip to content

Ytterbium magneto-optical trap on the blue 399 nm line

Guided matter waves lab

Research

In my lab, we investigate quantum inertial sensors based on matter-wave interferometry. In the realm of tests of fundamental physics and large-scale infrastructure for future ultra-light dark matter and gravitational wave detectors, we operate the 10m long Hannover Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometry (VLBAI) facility – the 3rd operational facility of its kind worldwide – and have made seminal contributions to quantum tests of the universality of free fall. We furthermore advance quantum technologies for applications in Earth observation, e.g., through flight gravimetry, and inertial navigation and my group is developing versatile, reconfigurable multi-axis quantum inertial sensors based on matter waves programmable optical potentials (patent pending) and novel opto-mechanical inertial references for hybrid quantum sensors allowing for immunity against seismic noise and excellent long-term stability (protected by a patent).

Research centers

Cluster of Excellence

QuantumFrontiers

Light and Matter at the Quantum Frontier.

quantumfrontiers.de CRC 1227

DQ-mat

Designed Quantum States of Matter.

dq-mat.uni-hannover.de

Research topics

All publications

Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometry

Publications

D. Schlippert et al., Matter Wave Interferometry for Inertial Sensing and Tests of Fundamental Physics Eighth Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry, Bloomington, Indiana (2020)
A. Abdalla et al., Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry: summary of the second workshop EPJ Quantum Technol. 12, 42 (2025)
S. Abend et al., Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry: Workshop Summary AVS Quantum Sci. 6, 024701 (2024)
M. Schilling et al., Gravity field modelling for the Hannover 10 m atom interferometer J. Geod. 94, 122 (2020)
É. Wodey et al., A scalable high-performance magnetic shield for Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometry Rev. Sci. Instrum. 91, 035117 (2020)
A. Lezeik et al., Understanding the gravitational and magnetic environment of a very long baseline atom interferometer Ninth Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry, Bloomington, Indiana (2022)

Theses & collaborators

Schematic of the VLBAI seismic isolation system — The VLBAI seismic isolation system.

Quantum Tests of the Universality of Free Fall

Publications

D. Schlippert et al., Quantum Test of the Universality of Free Fall Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 203002 (2014)
H. Albers et al., Quantum test of the Universality of Free Fall using rubidium and potassium Eur. Phys. J. D 74, 145 (2020)
C. Ufrecht et al., An atom interferometer testing the universality of free fall and gravitational redshift Phys. Rev. Research 2, 043240 (2020)
J. Hartwig et al., Testing the universality of free fall with rubidium and ytterbium in a very large baseline atom interferometer New J. Phys. 17, 035011 (2015)
S. Loriani et al., Resolution of the colocation problem in satellite quantum tests of the universality of free fall Phys. Rev. D 102, 124043 (2020)
S. Loriani et al., Interference of Clocks: A Quantum Twin Paradox Sci. Adv. 5, No. 10 (2019)

Absorption image of an atomic cloud — First MOT, marked.

All-optical matter-wave sources

Publications

A. Herbst et al., Matter-wave collimation to picokelvin energies with scattering length and potential shape control Commun. Phys. 7, 132 (2024)
A. Herbst et al., High-flux source system for matter-wave interferometry exploiting tunable interactions Phys. Rev. Research 6, 013139 (2024)
A. Herbst et al., Rapid generation of all-optical ³⁹K Bose-Einstein condensates using a low-field Feshbach resonance Phys. Rev. A 106, 043320 (2022)
H. Albers et al., All-Optical Matter-Wave Lens using Time-Averaged Potentials Commun. Phys. 5, 60 (2022)
É. Wodey et al., A robust, high-flux source of laser-cooled ytterbium atoms J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 54, 035301 (2021)
C. Vogt et al., Evaporative cooling from an optical dipole trap in microgravity Phys. Rev. A 101, 013634 (2020)

Theses & collaborators

Pink fluorescence from a rubidium magneto-optical trap — Fluorescence from a rubidium magneto-optical trap ((c) VLBAI-Rb lab/LUH).

Absolute Flight Gravimetry

Publications

M. Gersemann et al., Developments for quantum inertial navigation systems employing Bose–Einstein condensates Appl. Phys. Rev. 12, 031306 (2025)
B. Tennstedt et al., Impact of Uncertainties in Atom Interferometry on Strapdown Navigation Solutions 2019 DGON Inertial Sensors and Systems (ISS)
M. Bochkati et al., Could Cold Atom Interferometry Sensors be the Future Inertial Sensors? First Simulation Results 2017 DGON Inertial Sensors and Systems (ISS)

Theses & collaborators

Gravimetric measurement of the solid-Earth tides — Solid-Earth tides, resolved with atoms.

Multi-axis inertial sensing

Publications

K. Stolzenberg et al., Multi-axis inertial sensing with 2D matter-wave arrays Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 143601 (2025)
K. Stolzenberg et al., Quantum inertial measurement unit and method for detecting at least one physical measurement variable EP4575517B1 — European patent (2026)

Theses & collaborators

Knut E. Stolzenberg — Versatile optical potentials and their applications

A 3×3 array of Bose-Einstein condensates — Courtesy of C. Engel & K. Stolzenberg (LUH)

Hybrid quantum sensors based on opto-mechanical resonators

Publications

L. L. Richardson et al., Optomechanical resonator-enhanced atom interferometry Commun. Phys. 3, 208 (2020)
F. Guzmán et al., Optomechanical Inertial Reference for Atom Interferometers WO 2020/168314 A1 — filed by the University of Arizona (2020)

Theses & collaborators

Schematic of an optomechanical resonator coupled to atoms — Optomechanical resonator-enhanced atom interferometry.