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Tilman Esslinger

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Tilman Esslinger
Tilman Esslinger (2019)
Born (1965-07-25) 25 July 1965 (age 61)
Alma materLMU Munich
Known forUltracold quantum gases, optical lattices, Mott insulators, experimental realization of the topological Haldane model
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist
InstitutionsETH Zurich
Theodor Hänsch
Websitewww.quantumoptics.ethz.ch

Tilman Esslinger is a German experimental physicist. He is a Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and works in the field of ultracold quantum gases and optical lattices.

Biography

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Tilman Esslinger received his PhD in physics from LMU Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Germany, in 1995. In his doctoral research, he worked under the supervision of Theodor Hänsch on subrecoil laser cooling and optical lattices. He then built up his own group in Hänsch's lab and conducted pioneering work on atom lasers,[1] observed long-range phase coherence in a Bose–Einstein condensate,[2] and realized the superfluid to Mott-insulator transition with a Bose gas in an optical lattice.[3][4]

Following his habilitation, Esslinger was appointed full professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, in October 2001, where he pioneered one-dimensional atomic quantum gases,[5] Fermi–Hubbard models with atoms,[6] a quantum-gas analogue of the topological Haldane model,[7] mesoscopic transport with neutral atoms,[8] and the merger of quantum-gas experiments with cavity quantum electrodynamics.[9]

Research

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The work of Esslinger and his group has stimulated an interdisciplinary exchange between the condensed-matter and quantum-gas communities. Notable results include the development of a quantum simulator for graphene,[10] the setting up of a cavity-optomechanical system in which the Dicke quantum phase transition to a superradiant state has been observed for the first time,[11] as well as the creation of a cold-atom analogue of mesoscopic conductors[8] and the observation of the onset of superfluidity in that system.[12]

A central focus of Esslinger's research has been the Fermi–Hubbard model, a foundational framework in condensed-matter physics for the electronic and magnetic properties of solids.[6] His group was the first to realize the model using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice,[13] subsequently observing a fermionic Mott insulator[14] and short-range quantum magnetism.[15] By periodically driving the lattice using Floquet engineering, the group achieved an enhancement and sign reversal of magnetic correlations,[16] and used the same approach to engineer density-dependent Peierls phases, a mechanism relevant to the quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories.[17]

Combining cavity-mediated long-range interactions with short-range interactions in an optical lattice, the group observed a first-order phase transition arising from the competition between the two,[18] and a supersolid phase breaking a continuous translational symmetry, together with its characteristic Higgs and Goldstone modes.[19][20]

Extending their work on mesoscopic transport with neutral atoms, Esslinger and collaborators demonstrated an atomic analogue of the thermoelectric effect[21] and observed quantized conductance in neutral matter for the first time.[22]

Building on the group's realization of the topological Haldane model, dynamical optical lattices were used to implement topological pumps, allowing the interplay between strong interactions and topology to be explored.[23] This approach was subsequently adapted to implement geometric two-qubit gates, realizing 17,000 SWAP gates operating in parallel with an average fidelity of 99.91%.[24]

He is an author of more than 140 peer-reviewed journal articles, which have been cited more than 45,000 times (as of July 2026).

Awards and honours

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Esslinger was awarded the Philip Morris Research Prize in 2000, jointly with Theodor Hänsch and Immanuel Bloch.[25] He received ERC Advanced Grants in 2010 and 2017,[26] and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2014.[27] In 2021 he shared the Senior BEC Award with Rudolf Grimm.[28] In 2022, Heriot-Watt University awarded him an honorary doctorate,[29] and he received an Advanced Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation.[30] In 2025, Esslinger received the Micius Quantum Prize, jointly with Immanuel Bloch and Markus Greiner, "for the pioneering experimental realization of bosonic and fermionic Hubbard models in optical lattices as analog quantum simulators of strongly interacting many-body systems for comprehensive investigations of quantum phases, transport, and topological phenomena."[31]

References

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  1. ↑ Bloch, Immanuel; Hänsch, Theodor W.; Esslinger, Tilman (1999-04-12). "Atom Laser with a cw Output Coupler". Physical Review Letters. 82 (15). American Physical Society (APS): 3008–3011. arXiv:cond-mat/9812258. Bibcode:1999PhRvL..82.3008B. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.82.3008. ISSN 0031-9007. S2CID 119408594.
  2. ↑ Bloch, I.; Hänsch, T. W.; Esslinger, T. (2000). "Measurement of the spatial coherence of a trapped Bose gas at the phase transition". Nature. 403 (6766). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 166–170. Bibcode:2000Natur.403..166B. doi:10.1038/35003132. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 10646595. S2CID 4427668.
  3. ↑ Greiner, Markus; Bloch, Immanuel; Mandel, Olaf; Hänsch, Theodor W.; Esslinger, Tilman (2001-10-01). "Exploring Phase Coherence in a 2D Lattice of Bose-Einstein Condensates". Physical Review Letters. 87 (16) 160405. American Physical Society (APS). arXiv:cond-mat/0105105. Bibcode:2001PhRvL..87p0405G. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.87.160405. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 11690192. S2CID 26265081.
  4. ↑ Greiner, Markus; Mandel, Olaf; Esslinger, Tilman; Hänsch, Theodor W.; Bloch, Immanuel (2002). "Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms". Nature. 415 (6867). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 39–44. arXiv:2506.21303. Bibcode:2002Natur.415...39G. doi:10.1038/415039a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 11780110. S2CID 4411344.
  5. ↑ Stöferle, Thilo; Moritz, Henning; Schori, Christian; Köhl, Michael; Esslinger, Tilman (2004-03-31). "Transition from a Strongly Interacting 1D Superfluid to a Mott Insulator". Physical Review Letters. 92 (13) 130403. arXiv:cond-mat/0312440. Bibcode:2004PhRvL..92m0403S. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.92.130403. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 15089587. S2CID 34141301.
  6. 1 2 Esslinger, Tilman (2010-08-10). "Fermi-Hubbard Physics with Atoms in an Optical Lattice". Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics. 1 (1). Annual Reviews: 129–152. arXiv:1007.0012. Bibcode:2010ARCMP...1..129E. doi:10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-070909-104059. ISSN 1947-5454. S2CID 119274107.
  7. ↑ Jotzu, Gregor; Messer, Michael; Desbuquois, Rémi; Lebrat, Martin; Uehlinger, Thomas; et al. (2014). "Experimental realization of the topological Haldane model with ultracold fermions". Nature. 515 (7526): 237–240. arXiv:1406.7874. Bibcode:2014Natur.515..237J. doi:10.1038/nature13915. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 25391960. S2CID 204898338.
  8. 1 2 Brantut, J.-P.; Meineke, J.; Stadler, D.; Krinner, S.; Esslinger, T. (2012-08-02). "Conduction of Ultracold Fermions Through a Mesoscopic Channel". Science. 337 (6098). American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): 1069–1071. arXiv:1203.1927. Bibcode:2012Sci...337.1069B. doi:10.1126/science.1223175. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 22859818. S2CID 143934.
  9. ↑ Brennecke, Ferdinand; Donner, Tobias; Ritter, Stephan; Bourdel, Thomas; Köhl, Michael; Esslinger, Tilman (2007). "Cavity QED with a Bose–Einstein condensate". Nature. 450 (7167): 268–271. arXiv:0706.3411. Bibcode:2007Natur.450..268B. doi:10.1038/nature06120. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 17994093. S2CID 4405139.
  10. ↑ Tarruell, Leticia; Greif, Daniel; Uehlinger, Thomas; Jotzu, Gregor; Esslinger, Tilman (2012). "Creating, moving and merging Dirac points with a Fermi gas in a tunable honeycomb lattice". Nature. 483 (7389): 302–305. arXiv:1111.5020. Bibcode:2012Natur.483..302T. doi:10.1038/nature10871. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 22422263. S2CID 4368258.
  11. ↑ Baumann, Kristian; Guerlin, Christine; Brennecke, Ferdinand; Esslinger, Tilman (2010). "Dicke quantum phase transition with a superfluid gas in an optical cavity". Nature. 464 (7293): 1301–1306. arXiv:0912.3261. Bibcode:2010Natur.464.1301B. doi:10.1038/nature09009. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 20428162. S2CID 205220396.
  12. ↑ Stadler, David; Krinner, Sebastian; Meineke, Jakob; Brantut, Jean-Philippe; Esslinger, Tilman (2012). "Observing the drop of resistance in the flow of a superfluid Fermi gas". Nature. 491 (7426): 736–739. arXiv:1210.1426. Bibcode:2012Natur.491..736S. doi:10.1038/nature11613. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 23192151. S2CID 4391706.
  13. ↑ Köhl, Michael; Moritz, Henning; Stöferle, Thilo; Günter, Kenneth; Esslinger, Tilman (2005). "Fermionic Atoms in a Three Dimensional Optical Lattice: Observing Fermi Surfaces, Dynamics, and Interactions". Physical Review Letters. 94 (8) 080403. arXiv:cond-mat/0410389. Bibcode:2005PhRvL..94h0403K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.080403. PMID 15783869.
  14. ↑ Jördens, Robert; Strohmaier, Niels; Günter, Kenneth; Moritz, Henning; Esslinger, Tilman (2008). "A Mott insulator of fermionic atoms in an optical lattice". Nature. 455 (7210): 204–207. arXiv:0804.4009. Bibcode:2008Natur.455..204J. doi:10.1038/nature07244. PMID 18784720.
  15. ↑ Greif, Daniel; Uehlinger, Thomas; Jotzu, Gregor; Tarruell, Leticia; Esslinger, Tilman (2013). "Short-range quantum magnetism of ultracold fermions in an optical lattice". Science. 340 (6138): 1307–1310. arXiv:1212.2634. Bibcode:2013Sci...340.1307G. doi:10.1126/science.1236362. PMID 23704375.
  16. ↑ Görg, Frederik; Messer, Michael; Sandholzer, Kilian; Jotzu, Gregor; Desbuquois, Rémi; Esslinger, Tilman (2018). "Enhancement and sign change of magnetic correlations in a driven quantum many-body system". Nature. 553 (7689): 481–485. arXiv:1708.06751. Bibcode:2018Natur.553..481G. doi:10.1038/nature25135. PMID 29368703.
  17. ↑ Görg, Frederik; Sandholzer, Kilian; Minguzzi, Joaquín; Desbuquois, Rémi; Messer, Michael; Esslinger, Tilman (2019). "Realization of density-dependent Peierls phases to engineer quantized gauge fields coupled to ultracold matter". Nature Physics. 15 (11): 1161–1167. arXiv:1812.05895. Bibcode:2019NatPh..15.1161G. doi:10.1038/s41567-019-0615-4.
  18. ↑ Landig, Renate; Hruby, Lorenz; Dogra, Nishant; Landini, Manuele; Mottl, Rafael; Donner, Tobias; Esslinger, Tilman (2016). "Quantum phases from competing short- and long-range interactions in an optical lattice". Nature. 532 (7600): 476–479. arXiv:1511.00007. Bibcode:2016Natur.532..476L. doi:10.1038/nature17409. PMID 27064902.
  19. ↑ Léonard, Julian; Morales, Andrea; Zupancic, Philip; Esslinger, Tilman; Donner, Tobias (2017). "Supersolid formation in a quantum gas breaking a continuous translational symmetry". Nature. 543 (7643): 87–90. arXiv:1609.09053. Bibcode:2017Natur.543...87L. doi:10.1038/nature21067. PMID 28252072.
  20. ↑ Léonard, Julian; Morales, Andrea; Zupancic, Philip; Donner, Tobias; Esslinger, Tilman (2017). "Monitoring and manipulating Higgs and Goldstone modes in a supersolid quantum gas". Science. 358 (6369): 1415–1418. arXiv:1704.05803. Bibcode:2017Sci...358.1415L. doi:10.1126/science.aan2608. PMID 29242343.
  21. ↑ Brantut, Jean-Philippe; Grenier, Charles; Meineke, Jakob; Stadler, David; Krinner, Sebastian; Kollath, Corinna; Esslinger, Tilman; Georges, Antoine (2013). "A thermoelectric heat engine with ultracold atoms". Science. 342 (6159): 713–715. arXiv:1306.5754. Bibcode:2013Sci...342..713B. doi:10.1126/science.1242308. PMID 24158905.
  22. ↑ Krinner, Sebastian; Stadler, David; Husmann, Dominik; Brantut, Jean-Philippe; Esslinger, Tilman (2015). "Observation of quantized conductance in neutral matter". Nature. 517 (7532): 64–67. arXiv:1404.6400. Bibcode:2015Natur.517...64K. doi:10.1038/nature14049. PMID 25557712.
  23. ↑ Zhu, Zijie; Gächter, Marius; Walter, Anne-Sophie; Viebahn, Konrad; Esslinger, Tilman (2024). "Reversal of quantized Hall drifts at noninteracting and interacting topological boundaries". Science. 384 (6693): 317–320. arXiv:2301.03583. Bibcode:2024Sci...384..317Z. doi:10.1126/science.adg3848. PMID 38635716.
  24. ↑ Kiefer, Yann; Zhu, Zijie; Fischer, Lars; Jele, Samuel; Gächter, Marius; Bisson, Giacomo; Viebahn, Konrad; Esslinger, Tilman (2026). "Protected quantum gates using qubit doublons in dynamical optical lattices". Nature. 652 (8110): 609–614. arXiv:2507.22112. Bibcode:2026Natur.652..609K. doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10285-1. PMID 41951743.
  25. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Tilman Esslinger". ETH Zurich, Department of Physics. Retrieved 2026-07-25.
  26. ↑ "ERC Advanced Grant to Tilman Esslinger". ETH Zurich, Department of Physics. 2017-03-28. Retrieved 2026-07-25.
  27. ↑ "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. Retrieved 2026-07-25.
  28. ↑ "Bose-Einstein Condensation Awards 2021". TOPTICA Photonics. 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2026-07-25.
  29. ↑ "Tilman Esslinger". Heriot-Watt University. Retrieved 2026-07-25.
  30. ↑ "Six ETH Zurich researchers receive Advanced Grants". ETH Zurich. 2022-06-28. Retrieved 2026-07-25.
  31. ↑ "Three international scientists win 2025 Micius Quantum Prize". Xinhua. 2025-08-02. Retrieved 2026-07-25.
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