Gian-Luca Schmid completed his doctoral thesis Moritz Weegen completed his experimental work Josh Zuber completed his doctorate at the Depart- at the Department of Physics at the University of at the Departments of Chemistry and Physics of ment of Physics of the University of Basel, where Basel and continued his work there as a postdoc- the University of Basel. He is currently working he continued working as a postdoc. toral researcher. as a data engineer at IWB. Coupled with light Coupling a solid body to an atomic Sensitive sensors based on diamond In his doctoral dissertation, Dr. Gian-Luca system color centers Schmid used laser light to couple two dif- For his doctoral dissertation, Moritz Wee- For his doctoral dissertation, Dr. Josh Zu- ferent quantum systems over a relatively gen developed and then characterized a ber studied silicon vacancy centers in di- large distance of one meter. Interfaces of hybrid system consisting of a solid body amonds with a view to potential applica- this kind are vital for future quantum and a small number of atoms. tions in scanning probe magnetometry. technologies. He achieved this by coupling a charged These diamond color centers are particu- For the microscopic system, Gian-Luca nanomechanical oscillator in the form of larly interesting because they exhibit ex- Schmid used the collective spin of a cloud a silver-gallium nanowire (Ag2Ga) to indi- cellent optical and spin properties even + of cold rubidium atoms, while the mac- vidual calcium ions (Ca ) caught in a under extreme conditions, as well as pos- roscopic system was a vibrating mem- high-frequency trap. This creates a hybrid sessing outstanding photostability. brane positioned between two mirrors. system in which the calcium ions can be Josh Zuber’s work showed that, The membrane had a nanostructure that excited by mechanical motion of the thanks to their high spatial resolution optimized the vibrational properties. nanowire. In his experimental work, and sensitivity, negatively charged silicon Gian-Luca used the interaction be- Moritz Weegen showed that the strength vacancy centers in optimized nanostruc- tween the two systems to cool the me- of coupling depends on various parame- tures (SiV–) were suitable for studying chanical oscillator down to a temperature ters, such as the mechanical properties complex physical systems whose analysis close to absolute zero within a fraction and oscillation amplitude of the nanowire, is only possible in extremely low tem- of a second. This process involves first the distance between the nanowire and peratures (