Photons are great carriers of information but they usually don’t interact with one another. Atoms interact but are hard to manipulate and do not benefit from the toolbox of quantum optics for detecting quantum fluctuations and entanglement. Many approaches have been proposed to marry these two systems for quantum simulation of condensed matter with strongly interacting photons, but to date, the realization of large-scale synthetic materials made of optical photons is still missing. Our team targets this exciting goal, namely the creation of Synthetic Photonic Matter. We are offering an internship opportunity (followed by an ERC-funded PhD) to expand the capabilities of this platform to a new level by increasing by many orders of magnitude the effective photon-photon interactions and enter the strong interaction regime.

Les photons sont d’excellents porteurs d’information, mais ils n’interagissent généralement pas les uns avec les autres. Les atomes interagissent, mais ils sont difficiles à manipuler et ne bénéficient pas de l’arsenal de l’optique quantique pour d´etecter les fluctuations quantiques et l’intrication. De nombreuses approches ont été proposées pour marier ces deux systèmes en vue de simuler de la matière condensée avec des photons fortement interagissant, mais à ce jour, la réalisation de matériaux synthétiques composés de photons fait encore d´efaut. Notre équipe vise cet objectif ambitieux, à savoir la création de Matiere Photonique Synthétique. Nous proposons une opportunité de stage (suivie d'une thèse financée par l'ERC) pour étendre les capacités de notre plateforme à un nouveau niveau en augmentant de plusieurs ordres de grandeur les interactions effectives photon-photon et en entrant dans le régime des interactions fortes.

Quantum computing requires precise control of individual quantum systems and their interactions. Ultracold molecules offer long-lived quantum states for storing information, while Rydberg atoms provide strong interactions for fast quantum operations. Combining these advantages opens a new route towards scalable quantum computing. Our group is developing an experimental platform combining individual CaF molecules and Rb atoms in reconfigurable optical tweezer arrays. The long-term goal is to exploit molecule–Rydberg atom interactions to implement fast quantum gates and new methods for manipulating and measuring molecular qubits. During this six-month internship, the student will contribute to the development and characterisation of the hybrid experimental platform. Depending on experimental progress and the student's interests, the work may focus on optical tweezer generation and control, single-particle trapping and imaging, Rydberg excitation, or the development of experimental control and data analysis techniques. The student will work closely with researchers developing this new quantum computing platform.

When high energy photons are absorbed in a material, carriers are photo-generated with a large of kinetic energy above the band edge. In some well-tailored devices, it is possible to slow down carrier relaxation such that carriers form a “hot” distribution that may offer a pathway to very high efficiency of solar energy conversion. Two positions are available . The internships will have experimental and theoretical sides, and will be carried out in the framework of the ERC ULTIMATEPV.

The central objective of this internship is to establish a reproducible route for fabricating europium molecular membranes and, crucially, to determine whether their exceptional optical properties are preserved after exfoliation and transfer. The student will optimize the mechanical exfoliation conditions to increase the yield of thin, large-area flakes; develop deterministic dry-transfer protocols onto photonic substrates such as SiC, SiO2/Si and glass; characterize membrane thickness, morphology and crystalline quality using optical interference microscopy, atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy; and investigate their luminescence and optical homogeneous linewidths at cryogenic temperatures using spectral hole burning. Comparison with bulk crystals will allow the influence of exfoliation, reduced thickness and substrate coupling on the optical coherence of the molecular material to be established.

This internship will focus on measuring mid-infrared molecular transitions of methanol (CH3OH), ammonia (NH3), and other molecules known for their enhanced sensitivity to changes in µ. The work will involve achieving subDoppler spectroscopic resolution to reach target laboratory frequency accuracies of ~100 Hz needed for comparisons with astronomical observations. This activity is part of the ANR Ultiµos project, a collaborative effort which seeks to refine current constraints on the possible variation of µ which involves leading research institutions, including Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (LKB, L. Hilico) and MONARIS (C. Janssen) at Sorbonne Université. The three partners of the Ultiµos consortium will collaborate to conduct measurements in different spectral windows, to identify transitions as targets for future Earth/space comparison campaigns, which could further tighten constraints on variations of µ. Other collaborators, such as Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Onsala Space Observatory, will provide theoretical and observational/astronomical support to complement the experimental efforts.

The master student will join the effort at LPL to develop a new-generation compact and versatile microwave (MW) spectrometer operating over the 2–20 GHz range. This instrument is conceived both as a high-sensitivity detector of internal quantum states in polyatomic molecules and as a precision tool for molecular frequency metrology. The spectrometer will enable cross-checks between MW rotational frequencies and mid-infrared (MIR) rovibrational data planned to be measured at the 100 Hz level in the frame of the ANR Ultiµos project. These comparisons are directly motivated by the search for potential variations of the proton-to-electron mass ratio µ, a fundamental constant whose stability can be tested by confronting laboratory data with MW astronomical spectra of molecules such as methanol and ammonia. These species possess transitions with strong sensitivity coefficients to µ, making them powerful probes of possible temporal or spatial variations of fundamental constants. In Ultiµos, spectroscopy with ultrastable MIR quantum cascade lasers provide ultra-precise MIR frequencies with relative uncertainties of 10 ¹². By using combination–difference schemes, these MIR data yield effective MW intervals that can be directly confronted with our SI-traceable MW measurements. Such dual determinations, based on entirely different experimental chains and affected by distinct systematic effects, are ideal for robust cross-validation of frequency values and uncertainty budgets.

The goal of this internship is to develop and characterize nonlinear acousto-optic devices operating in the mid-infrared (wavelength of 3-8µm), leveraging broadband transparency and piezoelectricity of III-V semiconductor heterostructures. These devices will perform phase modulation, but also potentially on-chip optical routing, a pre-requisite for magnetic field-free optical isolation. The internship will be mostly experimental, involving the use and development of two existing setups. The first one is a mid-IR integrated photonic bench allowing to characterize the operation of the devices (see above, right). The second one is a heterodyne interferometer, that allows to image the SAW-related vibration (amplitude and phase) of the sample surface to characterize the acoustic properties of the devices (see above, left).