Peter Schauss
2018 Regional Award Finalist — Post-Doc
Current Position:
Assistant Professor
Institution:
University of Virginia (previously, Princeton University)
Discipline:
Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics
Recognized for: Fundamental experiments using quantum gas microscopy – where atoms are cooled to temperatures only a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero so their behavior becomes dominated by quantum mechanics.
Areas of Research Interest and Expertise:
Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, Quantum gas microscopy, Ultracold atoms, Quantum simulation, Rydberg atoms
Peter Schauss
Biography:
PhD, Summa cum laude, Ludwig Maximilian University of München, Germany
MS, with distinction, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
Dr. Peter Schauss, an experimental physicist working in field of ultracold atomic and molecular physics, is deepening our understanding of quantum mechanics of many particles at the atomic scale. Utilizing a state-of-the-art quantum gas microscope – an experimental apparatus that uses lasers and optics to periodically arrange and image individual atoms at ultracold temperatures where they are dominated by quantum mechanical behavior – Dr. Schauss is able to experimentally analyze systems that are too complex to be studied computationally. One such experiment explored how quantum behaviors can give rise to correlations as a precursor to superconductivity, and showed how the individual atoms’ magnetic behavior can collectively contribute to the materials’ properties. Beyond superconductivity, Dr. Schauss has studied static and dynamics properties of quantum magnets, with results that are promising to be extended to quantum simulation of real magnetic materials.
"Understanding interacting quantum system of many particles is a hard challenge. Ultracold atoms offer quantum simulation of these system with very good understanding of the basic ingredients, allowing to build complicated systems with well-known parameters. Quantum gas microscopy, the imaging of the whole system on a single-particle level, then unfolds the full power of ultracold atoms."
Key Publications:
P. Schauss, J. Zeiher, T. Fukuhara, S. Hild, M. Cheneau, T. Macrì, T. Pohl, I. Bloch, C. Gross, Crystallization in Ising quantum magnets, Science 347, 1455-1458 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1258351
P. T. Brown, D. Mitra, E. Guardado-Sanchez, P. Schauss, S. S. Kondov, E. Khatami, T. Paiva, N. Trivedi, D. A. Huse, W. S. Bakr, Spin-imbalance in a 2D Fermi-Hubbard system, Science 357, 1385-1388 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam7838
D. Mitra, P. T. Brown, E. Guardado-Sanchez, S. S. Kondov, T. Devakul, D. A. Huse, P. Schauss, W. S. Bakr, Quantum gas microscopy of an attractive Fermi-Hubbard system, Nat. Phys., 14, 173-177 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4297
E. Guardado-Sanchez, P. T. Brown, D. Mitra, T. Devakul, D. A. Huse, P. Schauss, W. S. Bakr , Probing the quench dynamics of antiferromagnetic correlations in a 2D quantum Ising spin system, Phys. Rev. X 8, 021069 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.8.021069
Other Honors:
2015 – 2018 Dicke Fellowship
2010 – 2012 Max-Planck Society Fellowship
In the Media:
Phys.org - Ultracold atoms point toward an intriguing magnetic behavior
Max Plank Institute of Quantum Optics - A New Order in the Quantum World
PRX Viewpoint - Watching a Quantum Magnet Grow in Ultracold Atoms
Phys.org - Ultracold atoms in a "Rydberg-dress"
Princeton University - Ultracold atoms point toward an intriguing magnetic behavior