SUPER Quantum ft. Doris Reiter

In this episode

• What a theoretical physicist does: modelling, with the rules of quantum mechanics, how electrons in solids behave when light hits them
• Why theorists and experimentalists have to learn each other’s language, and when a simulation needs a supercomputer
• How Doris went from a physics diploma to a permanent position at TU Dortmund, and why theory suited her better than the lab
• The project she picked: SUPER, a new way to excite a quantum emitter so it releases single photons for secure communication, explained with ladders and a diving tower
• Why physics feels like folk dancing: a common ground with people anywhere in the world
• Her three wishes: a professorship, permanent positions for talented colleagues, and a new puzzle to fascinate her

Key Takeaways

• Theoretical physicist and group leader at TU Dortmund, modelling how nanoscale quantum dots interact with light, using simulations, code (Python, C++, Fortran) and supercomputers.
• Chose theory because experiments never worked for her and she has a feel for equations; now has a permanent position.
• Quantum communication is a different kind of security: the no-cloning theorem means a copied key is detectable.
• Best non-research part: physics gives a common ground with people anywhere (she likens it to the folk dancing of her childhood).
• Three wishes: a professorship for herself, permanent positions for her many struggling talented colleagues, and to keep finding brain-teasing puzzles. Co-runs the QuanTour outreach project.

About the guest

Doris Reiter is a Professor at TU Dortmund University in Germany. A theoretical physicist by training, she works on SUPER, a scheme for generating single photons from quantum dots.

Doris Reiter curated the Real Scientists Nano Twitter account (@RealSci_Nano) from March 11 to March 17 2024. Read all of Doris’s tweets from that week.