14 Oct 2025
LMU quantum physicist Johannes Zeiher discusses the idea of using individual atoms for quantum computing and how “planqc” was founded to explore it. This start-up has now received the German Entrepreneur Award.
Control of quantum mechanical phenomena underlies many modern technologies, including lasers and modern semiconductor materials. Both these examples depend upon controlling a large number of elementary particles – photons in the first case and electrons in the second. Furthermore, the targeted control of atoms opens up a whole new window on to the world of quantum mechanics and enables practical new applications.