Quantum Physics Experimentalist

Study shows how light can transform an insulating material into a semimetal

May 14, 2024

Overview of the electronic band structure of TiSe2 in equilibrium and after excitation.

The elements in the periodic table are divided into metals, semimetals and non-metals. The distinction is based on their chemical and physical properties and is determined, in particular, by the movement of electrons and the materials' ability to conduct electrical energy: metals are excellent conductors, semimetals have...

Scientists visualize electron crystals in a quantum superposition

April 11, 2024

two sites of a graphene lattice

Illustration of two sites of graphene lattice. Credit: Image courtesy of the researchers

Princeton scientists are using innovative techniques to visualize electrons in graphene, a single atomic layer of carbon atoms. They are finding that strong interactions between electrons in high magnetic fields drive them to form unusual crystal-like structures similar to...

Alp Sipahigil

Assistant Professor

Alp Sipahigil is the Ping & Amy Chao Family Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He has joint appointments as a Faculty Scientist at the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a supporting appointment at UC Berkeley Physics.

He leads the Berkeley Quantum Devices Group which focuses on solid-state device research to advance quantum computation, communication and sensing. His group studies a wide range of physical systems including superconducting quantum circuits, color...

Holger Mueller

Professor

Holger Müller successfully applied for his first patent when he was 14. Later, he did his undergraduate thesis with Jürgen Mlynek at the University of Konstanz, Germany. He graduated from Humboldt-University, Berlin, with Achim Peters as his advisor. Müller received a fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation and joined the group of Steven Chu in Stanford as a postdoc. In July 2008, he joined the physics faculty at U.C. Berkeley.

Research Interests

Our research has been advancing atomic, molecular and optical physics to probe nature at the utmost sensitivity. Examples are...

Bernard Sadoulet

Professor Emeritus

Bernard Sadoulet, a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique (1963) and a “Docteur ès sciences” of Paris-Orsay University (1971), is by training an elementary particle physicist. As such, he had the chance of participating in two prestigious experiments which led to Nobel Prizes: the Mark I experiment at SLAC which discovered the J/ψ, the τ lepton and the charm, and UA1 at CERN which discovered the intermediate vector bosons W and Z. In 1984 he decided to shift his efforts towards particle astrophysics and cosmology. In 1985 he was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of California,...

Divide and conquer: improving an atomic clock by splitting it up

January 24, 2024

diagram showing the science behind the dividing of an atomic clock

In a paper recently published by the Physics Review, Shimon Kolkowitz and team explain how an atomic clock can be improved by splitting it up

Thanks to their remarkable precision and accuracy, optical atomic clocks are rapidly advancing the frontiers of timekeeping...

Feng Wang

Professor

Feng Wang received a B.A. from Fudan University, Shanghai, in 1999 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2004. From 2005-2007, he has been a Miller Fellow with Miller Institute for Basic Science at Berkeley. He joined the physics faculty in fall, 2007.

Research Interests

We are interested in light-matter interaction in condensed matter physics, with an emphasis on novel physical phenomena emerging in nanoscale structures and at surfaces/interfaces. When electrons and phonons are confined in nanometer scale or at surface/interfaces, they respond differently to external stimuli. We...

Eric Y. Ma

Assistant Professor

Eric Y. Ma received his B.S. in Physics from Peking University in 2010 and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 2016. He stayed at Stanford as a joint postdoctoral scholar in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering. He was also briefly Senior Scientist at Apple. In July 2021 Dr. Ma joined UC Berkeley full-time as Assistant Professor in Physics and by courtesy EECS, and currently holds the Georgia Lee Chair in Physics.

Research Interests

Most practical phenomena, except those related to nuclear reactions, can be well described by atomic nuclei and electrons...

Alessandra Lanzara

Professor, Charles Kittel Chair in Physics

Alessandra Lanzara received her PhD in physics from Universita’ di Roma La Sapienza, Italy in 1999. She was a postdoc at Stanford University for three years since 1999. In 2002 she joined the physics Department faculty at UC Berkeley as Assistant Professor and since 2011 she is a Full Professor. She is also a Senior Faculty Scientist at the Materials Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2002.

She is recipient of many prizes among which was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2008 and elected to the American Academy of Art and Science in...

Stephen Leone

The John R. Thomas Professor in Physics

Dr. Leone received his B.A. in Chemistry at Northwestern University in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley with Professor C. Bradley Moore in 1974. He was an assistant professor at the University of Southern California from 1974-76. He assumed a position with NIST and the University of Colorado in 1976 and became a full professor in 1982. Dr. Leone was a Fellow and staff member of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a Fellow of JILA, as well as an Adjoint Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a Lecturer of Physics at the...