SERI-financed ERC grant for Tobias Donner

Yet more proof comes with the SERI-financed ERC Consolidator Grant recently awarded to quantum physicist Tobias Donner for his project “Cavity QED with Strongly Correlated Fermionic Matter (CASCOFEM)”. Donner teaches and conducts research as a Senior Scientist and lecturer in the Department of Physics, and is also involved in the planning of the new HPQ physics building for quantum technologies, where construction work began at the end of October 2022. His scientific focus is on experiments with ultracold quantum gases.

Manipulating properties of quantum matter with light

This know-how flows into the research project evaluated by the European Research Council (ERC), which will now be funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). “We will use the grant to explore the limits of quantum many-body systems that are strongly coupled with light fields,” Donner explains.

The field of quantum many-body physics examines systems in which large numbers of particles interact with each other according to the laws of quantum mechanics. The goal here is not only to understand the resulting properties of these systems, but also to use them in a controlled way as the basis of new technologies. Donner’s plan of coupling quantum many-body systems with light could in future allow us to specifically influence the properties of quantum materials, such as magnetism or superconductivity.

“Our research project paves the way to understanding many-body phenomena, and to controlling and applying them across disciplines including materials science, quantum information science and high-energy physics,” says Donner. “In many cases, however, our understanding of the underlying mechanisms is still in its infancy.”

Breaking new experimental ground

The grant will now enable Donner to take an approach that has rarely been the subject of experimentation. To explore the fundamental principles of the interaction between quantum matter and light, Donner will build an experimental platform in which fermionic atoms can be strongly coupled with photons, light quanta or light particles.

Quantum particles can be assigned to one of the two fundamental classes of fermions and bosons. At the same time, the type of particle defines the properties of the many-particle systems they form. “So far we’ve only been able to study bosonic atoms coupled with light fields, but many properties of quantum materials are determined by fermionic particles,” says Donner. The researchers will now use techniques from quantum optics to investigate exactly how these light-induced properties occur and how they can be manipulated in the case of fermions. They will generate synthetic materials from ultracold atoms, which will then be coupled with a light field stored between two mirrors.

Impact of the partial exclusion from Horizon Europe

Tobias Donner’s receipt of the SERI-funded ERC grant comes as quantum researchers are starting to feel the impact of Switzerland’s partial exclusion from the European research and innovation funding programme Horizon Europe. Donner himself had yet to go through the ERC assessment process for his Consolidator Grant. ERC only extends funding to researchers working at research institutions in countries that are either EU members or associated with Horizon Europe, so Donner would have to change university to receive ERC funding. In this situation, SERI has stepped in and is providing him – and all researchers in Switzerland who are in the same situation – with the corresponding amount from the funds that the Federal Parliament had earmarked for the association with Horizon Europe.

Switzerland is not currently in association with Horizon Europe and is classified as a third country, so researchers can no longer apply for ERC grants with a Swiss institution as host. Furthermore, scientists in Switzerland are also excluded from various tenders for quantum research from which the EU excludes third countries – and even some associated countries in certain cases. In this context, the external page Quantum Transitional Call implemented by the SNSF on behalf of SERI is providing financial assistance.

However, such funding is no substitute for the opportunities for European collaboration in quantum research offered by the Quantum Flagship programme, for example. external page Complementary measures defined by the federal government this year are aimed at international networking and the diversification of international partnerships. But with no tenders as yet, no further details have emerged.

Tilman Esslinger, Professor of Quantum Optics at the Institute of Quantum Electronics at ETH Zurich, said recently at the “Switzerland and Horizon Europe” event that it was hugely important for the researchers themselves that Switzerland be associated with this research programme, as it was the only way for their research projects to be assessed by the same expert panels recognised throughout Europe and according to the standards of excellence established by the ERC. This direct, international comparison and proof of quality is missing if Switzerland assesses and promotes research projects in isolation. This is particularly true for young researchers, for whom Switzerland’s attractiveness as a research location is likely to decline as a result of the partial exclusion.