Swiss Scientists Receive Zeiss Research Award

摘要

Winners of the 2018 Zeiss Research Award are Professor Tobias J. Kippenberg and Professor Jean-Pierre Wolf, who were rewarded for their exceptional work. Tobias Kippenberg, Professor at the Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), is a pioneer in the field of cavity optomechanics and microresonator-based optical frequency combs. His research has demonstrated that, by using microresonators-which can confine light in an extremely small space and guide it-the faint forces exerted by light rays can be used to measure and cool mechanical movements in the quantum regime. This means, for instance, that high-precision sensors can be developed to measure mechanical movements that are several orders of magnitude more precise than the currently available position sensors and that are even sensitive enough to measure the quantum mechanical 'zero point motion' of a mechanical oscillator.