What is a photon?
n the occasion of the digital anniversary event "10 years PhotonLab", the student laboratory at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching, quantum physicist Prof. Gerhard Rempe, director at the MPQ and physics professor at the Technical University of Munich, asked the question in his popular science lecture: "What is a photon?"
A good 35 minutes later, after an equally informative as entertaining science discourse followed by an outlook on future possibilities in the field of quantum computing, communication and crytography, he arrives at an answer that is both interesting and perhaps surprisingly simple! The whole talk from July 23, 2021 can now be streamed here on photonworld.
The talk is in German language. However, the accompanying text and images are in English.
Welcome to Photonworld – a platform for knowledge, interesting facts and science on the topic of light. Photonworld aims to provide a basic understanding of the physics of light and its countless phenomena. From medicine, to art and physics: all topics are covered.
Photonworld originated as an initiative of the excellence cluster the Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP) and the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ).
The initiator of the project is Prof. Dr. Ferenc Krausz, Chair of Experimental Physics at the LMU and Director of the MPQ.
Photonworld’s Student Zone reports directly out of the PhotonLab, which is supported by the Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST) and the DFG Research Unit FOR 2783. At the PhotonLab, schoolteachers and students can find up-to-date information about experiments and goings-on at the lab, and plan their own visit to the laboratory.
