Quantum Research Diversity at ISTA – an Overview

Austria’s hub for interdisciplinary research advances broad aspects of quantum science and technology

The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is a fast-growing, highly interdisciplinary research institute focused on the natural and formal sciences. Thirteen independent groups investigate fundamental aspects of quantum science and technology. Following comes an overview of this dynamic field at ISTA.

A team of physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) achieved a fully optical readout of superconducting qubits, here ISTA Professor Johannes Fink (middle) and co-first authors Georg Arnold (left) and Thomas Werner (right).

*Photo: Nadine Poncioni |* *qphox.eu* *| ISTA*

Since its establishment in 2009, the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has grown to encompass broad research fields, including diverse aspects of quantum science and technology. While Austria is internationally renowned as a hub of excellence in quantum research, ISTA stands out by the breadth of its quantum research areas. Beyond the theory and mathematics of quantum science and the more traditional atomic and optical quantum physics, the Institute also focuses on developing quantum materials and advancing device implementations.

Theory and Mathematics of Quantum Science

A pioneering vision of 20th-century physicist and Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner was that the distribution of the gaps between energy levels of complicated quantum systems depends only on the basic symmetry of the model. ISTA Professor László Erdős and his group, Mathematics of Disordered Quantum Systems and Matrices, seek to verify Wigner’s vision with full mathematical rigor.

ISTA Professor Mikhail Lemeshko and his group, Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, study how many-particle quantum phenomena emerge in ensembles of atoms and molecules. Their theoretical efforts aim to explain experiments on cold molecules and ultra-cold quantum gases and predict novel, previously unobserved phenomena.

With his group, Mathematical Physics, ISTA Professor Robert Seiringer develops new mathematical tools for the rigorous analysis of many-particle systems in quantum mechanics, with a special focus on exotic phenomena in quantum gases, like Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity.

The group of ISTA Professor Maksym Serbyn, Quantum Dynamics and Condensed Matter Theory, explores various open questions about quantum non-equilibrium matter. This includes how isolated quantum systems behave when prepared in a highly non-equilibrium state, how such quantum systems avoid the ubiquitous relaxation to a thermal equilibrium, and how to gain novel insights into properties of quantum matter using modern nonequilibrium probes.

Atomic and Optical Quantum Science

Ultrafast light-matter interactions have been predominantly viewed from a “semiclassical” perspective, treating matter quantum-mechanically while imposing a classical description of the electromagnetic field. ISTA Assistant Professor Denitsa Baykusheva and her group, Ultrafast Quantum Spectroscopy, seek to bridge this gap and bring ultrafast spectroscopy to the fully quantum regime.

With his group, Quantum Sensing with Atoms and Light, ISTA Assistant Professor Onur Hosten aims to develop innovative techniques to control the quantum properties of atomic, optical, and mechanical systems. The group’s long-term goal is to explore challenging experimental questions, such as the nature of dark matter and the interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity.

ISTA Assistant Professor Julian Léonard and his group, Quantum Optics, seek to understand small particles and the forces that govern their behavior by studying quantum optical systems built of individually controlled atoms and photons. Their approach could help improve materials and develop applications in quantum computing and quantum information processing.

Studying and Developing Quantum Materials

The group of ISTA Assistant Professor Zhanybek Alpichshev, Condensed Matter and Ultrafast Optics, uses ultra-fast optical methods to understand the physical mechanisms underlying some of the extremely complicated phenomena in many-body physics, such as the behavior of a large number of strongly correlated particles.

Modern quantum materials, such as unconventional superconductors, quantum spin liquids, and topological semimetals, host various emergent states of matter. With her group, Thermodynamics of Quantum Materials at the Microscale, ISTA Assistant Professor Kimberly Modic combines custom-built thermodynamic probes with state-of-the-art sample preparation to determine these states’ broken symmetries and topological structures.

The group of ISTA Assistant Professor Hryhoriy Polshyn, Emergent Electronic Phenomena in 2D Materials, experimentally explores novel electronic states and investigates their fundamental properties. The group’s research aims to better understand exotic electronic states and establish the physics background for conceptually new electronic devices and qubits.

With her group, Symmetry Probes of Quantum Matter, the incoming Assistant Professor Veronika Sunko, who will join ISTA in September 2025, will explore the causes and consequences of symmetry breaking in quantum materials and its relationship to topology. She aims to develop experimental methods sensitive to broken symmetries and use them to discover, characterize, and manipulate novel phenomena.

ISTA Professor Johannes Fink in the lab.

*Photo: Nadine Poncioni | ISTA*

Solid-state quantum mechanics and device implementations

The group of ISTA Professor Johannes Fink, Quantum Integrated Devices, studies quantum physics in electrical, mechanical, and optical chip-based devices to advance quantum technology for simulation, communication, metrology, and sensing. In a recent publication in Nature Physics, the Fink group achieved a fully optical readout of superconducting qubits, pushing the technology beyond its current limitations. This work lays the foundation for building a network of superconducting quantum computers connected via optical fibers at room temperature.

ISTA Professor Georgios Katsaros and his group, Nanoelectronics, investigate semiconductor nanodevices and study quantum effects when these devices are cooled to -273.14°C. They aim to create spin qubits in Germanium and to understand whether protected qubits can be realized in hybrid semiconductor-superconductor systems. In addition, they study new fundamental physics emerging in semiconductor nanodevices.

A team of physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) achieved a fully optical readout of superconducting qubits, published in Nature Physics. Here co-first author Thomas Werner with the dilution refrigerator.

*Photo: ISTA*

Lab buildings around the pond in the center of the campus of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.

*Photo: Magic Lemur Productions | ISTA*

About ISTA

The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is a PhD-granting fundamental research institution located in Klosterneuburg, 18 km from the center of Vienna, Austria. As of early 2025, the Institute has around 90 research groups in the fields of natural sciences, mathematics, and computer science. It is set to grow to around 150 research groups by 2036. ISTA employs professors on a tenure-track model as well as post-doctoral researchers, and offers a fully funded PhD program. While dedicated to the principle of curiosity-driven research, ISTA aims to deliver scientific findings to society through technological transfer and science education.