Biography

Simon Groeblacher completed his Master's degree and Ph.D. at the University of Vienna, Austria, working with Markus Aspelmeyer and Anton Zeilinger on quantum communication protocols in higher dimensions, the role of locality and reality in nature and the control of mechanical oscillators using quantum optics tools. Simon then joined Oskar Painter's group at the California Institute of Technology as a Marie Curie fellow in 2011, where he focused on optomechanical effects in photonic crystal cavities. In 2014 he became a faculty member of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology, where he is currently a Professor of Quantum Physics. Simon Groeblacher has received various prestigious prizes and grants, including a Starting Grant and a Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council, as well as a Vidi grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. His research has been published in journals including Nature, Science, Nature Physics and Physical Review Letters, among others. Prof. Groeblacher has joined Westlake University as the inaugural Professor of the newly established Quantum Group in February 2021.

Research

Prof. Groeblacher's group in Delft has demonstrated some of the first quantum states of mechanical systems coupled to optics through the radiation pressure force and has made several seminal contributions to the field of quantum optomechanics. 

The group pursues several different directions within quantum optomechanics, focusing on creating new quantum applications using mechanical oscillators, such as a functional quantum memory, a quantum repeater and novel quantum sensors. At the same time, the experiments are also aimed at exploring the boundary between classical and quantum physics and probe the interplay between quantum physics and gravity. This requires to employ previously unexplored quantum materials, discover novel nano-fabrication approaches and develop new physical concepts. The experiments involve techniques from quantum optics, finite element simulation, cryogenics, Radio Frequency and high-vacuum technology.

Representative Publications

1.A. Wallucks, I. Marinković, B. Hensen, R. Stockill, andS. Gröblacher,A quantum memory at telecom wavelengths, Nature Phys.16, 772-777 (2020).

2.M. Forsch*, R. Stockill*, A. Wallucks, I. Marinković, C. Gärtner, R. A. Norte, F. van Otten, A. Fiore, K. Srinivasan, andS. Gröblacher,Microwave-to-optics conversion using a mechanical oscillator in its quantum ground state, Nature Phys.16, 69–74 (2020).

3.J. Guo, R.A. Norte, andS. Gröblacher,Feedback cooling of a room temperature mechanical oscillator close to its motional groundstate, Phys. Rev. Lett.123, 223602 (2019).

4.I. Marinković*, A. Wallucks*, R. Riedinger, S. Hong, M. Aspelmeyer, andS. Gröblacher,An optomechanical Bell test, Phys. Rev. Lett.121, 220404 (2018).

5.R. A. Norte, M. Forsch, A. Wallucks, I. Marinković, andS. Gröblacher,Platform for measurements of the Casimir force between two superconductors, Phys. Rev. Lett.121, 030405 (2018).

6.R. Riedinger*, A. Wallucks*, I. Marinković*, C. Löschnauer, M. Aspelmeyer, S. Hong, andS. Gröblacher,Remote quantum entanglement between two micromechanical oscillators, Nature556, 473–477 (2018).

7.S. Hong*, R. Riedinger*, I. Marinković*, A. Wallucks*, S. G. Hofer, R. A. Norte, M. Aspelmeyer, andS. Gröblacher,Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry of single phonons from an optomechanical resonator, Science358, 203–206 (2017).

8.R. A. Norte, J. P. Moura, andS. Gröblacher,Mechanical resonators for quantum optomechanics experiments at room temperature, Phys. Rev. Lett.116, 147202 (2016).

9.R. Riedinger*, S. Hong*, R. A. Norte, J. A. Slater, J. Shang, A. G. Krause, V. Anant, M. Aspelmeyer, andS. Gröblacher,Non-classical correlations between single photons and phonons from a mechanical oscillator, Nature530, 313–316 (2016).

10.A. H. Safavi-Naeini*,S. Gröblacher*, J. T. Hill*, J. Chan, M. Aspelmeyer, and O. Painter,Squeezed light from a silicon micromechanical resonator, Nature500, 185–189 (2013).

11.J. Chan, T. P. Mayer Alegre, A. H. Safavi-Naeini, J. T. Hill, A. Krause,S. Gröblacher, M. Aspelmeyer, and O. Painter,Laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator into its quantum ground state, Nature478, 89–92 (2011).

12.S. Gröblacher, T. Paterek, R. Kaltenbaek, Č. Brukner, M. Żukowski, M. Aspelmeyer, and A. Zeilinger,An experimental test of non-local realism, Nature446, 871–875 (2007).