11/13/23 Malte Schwarz, GSR, Stamper-Kurn UCB Research Group Highly Recommends Research Exchange Program After UCSB Visit

The CIQC graduate student exchange program allowed to me to visit and work with the ultracold atom labs of David Welds’ group at UCSB. During my time there I spent one week with the Strontium optical lattice experiment; I greatly enjoyed learning about new perspectives on optical lattice experiments from a Floquet and quasicrystal point of view. In addition, I got the chance to learn in depth from their optics setups, ultra-high vacuum setups, electronics, experimental control, analysis, and theory simulations. The experience of working with a team of researchers directly for multiple days in a row is, for me, the key to have fruitful discussions, learn productively from these partners and dive into their research.

Thanks to the funding from CIQC I was able to spend another week working with the potassium (K) tweezer team as well. Given that I’m currently also working on building a K (&Rb) ultracold atom experiment that has many similarities, I was excited to see their setup, learn about the experimental sequence, find inspiration from their choices of optical systems, discuss problems that they encounter and more. I was even able to start the work to get their painted optical-dipole trap up and running and I shared problems, ideas, and thoughts about our K cooling scheme.

For me, this visit has been extremely fruitful - I feel that I’ve gotten a great boost to my academic career in learning great amounts of theoretical and in-depth experimental knowledge that I apply in my own work; I’ve established fruitful connections with other researchers for future collaborations to advance the field of quantum information; Additionally, the fact that my knowledge has already had a helpful impact on the research efforts of this CIQC partner gives me satisfaction. I greatly recommend this exchange program!