Welcome to the Hensen Lab

Welcome to the Hensen Lab! We are a young dynamic experimental research group starting at the Leiden Institute of Physics.

Our lab addresses one of the key challenges of modern physics: understanding the interface between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Recently, an experimental test was proposed that can directly witness the need to unify the two theories: observing quantum entanglement between objects that only interact through the gravitational field. A successful test would prove the existence of superpositions of space-time and have far-reaching implications on how we understand our world.

We aim to develop and characterise an experimental platform that is compatible with the requirements for such a ‘entanglement through gravity’ experiment. The objectives of the research are to trap and levitate a picogram mass, cool its centre-of-mass motion to the quantum ground state, couple its motion to a controllable qubit system and produce and measure a spatial superpositions of the mass

We are looking for passionate new PhD students, Postdocs, and Master students to join the team (more info) !

We are grateful for funding from Leiden University and from an ERC starting grant.

News

16. May 2023

We have multiple MSc projects available, see vacancies

17. Jan 2023

Postdoc position available!

1. Feb 2023

Aaron de Jong joined us for his thesis internship!

1. Nov 2022

Stef Koenis started his PhD!

1. Sept 2022

Martijn Janse started his PhD!

1. June 2022

Officially starting our lab in Leiden!

10. Jan 2022

We win a ERC Starting grant: 1500kEUR to invest in science! (Leiden news)

... see all News