| Silke Ospelkaus-Schwarzer | |
| Workplaces: | Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics JILA NIST University of Colorado Boulder University of Hanover |
| Alma Mater: | University of Hamburg University of Bonn |
| Thesis Title: | Quantum degenerate Fermi-Bose mixtures of 40K and 87Rb in 3D-optical lattices |
| Thesis Url: | http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/637595058 |
| Thesis Year: | 2007 |
Silke Ospelkaus-Schwarzer is a German experimental physicist who studies ultra-cold molecular materials at the University of Hanover Institute of Quantum Optics. She was awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Award in 2022.
Ospelkaus studied physics at the University of Bonn.[1] [2] She moved to the University of Hamburg for her doctoral research, where she studied Fermi-Bose mixtures of potassium and rubidium in optical lattices.[3] [4] She was awarded the doctoral prize of the German Physical Society.[5] She moved to the JILA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the University of Colorado Boulder.[6] [7] [8]
In 2009, Ospelkaus returned to Germany, where she was made a group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. She investigates the behaviour of atomic and molecular gases at ultra-cold temperatures.[9] In particular, ultra-cold molecular gases offer hope to better understand chemical processes.[10] She has investigated two species atomic quantum gases mixtures, from which she can prepare polar molecules in a degenerate state.
By cooling hot samples of sodium and potassium, Ospelkaus is able to study exotic phenomena such as hyperfine ro-vibrational electronic interactions. She first combines Zeeman slowing with two-dimensional magneto-optical trapping, and once the atoms are cooled below the Doppler limit, loads them into a magnetic quadrupole trap.[11] At this stage, microwave evaporation cools the sodium, which results in the sympathetic cooling of potassium. At ≈ 10 μK, interactions between the sodium and magnesium become increasingly strong, and further cooling demands more sophisticated tools. These include magnetic Feshbach resonance.
Ospelkaus has demonstrated laser cooling to study diatomic molecules.[12] She achieves this cooling using direct laser cooling and buffer gas cooling.[13] Ultra-cold molecules are essentially stationary, which allows for their structure-property relationships to be studied at ultra-high precision. Dense gases of these molecules exhibit quantum behaviour, which allows for investigations into superconductivity.
Ospelkaus uses molecular spectroscopy to understand the quantum states of alkali metal – alkaline earth metal atomic gases.[14] In 2022, she was awarded a European Research Council consolidator grant.[15]