Prof. Dr. Jörg Wrachtrup
Experimental Physics, University of Stuttgart
Jörg Wrachtrup has opened up a completely new and very successful area of research at the interface between solid-state physics and quantum optics. The foundation for this was laid with his pioneering work on the detection of single spins in solids. A milestone was especially the detection of individual paramagnetic nitrogen vacancies in diamond, called NV centres, which are characterised by exceptional photostability. Wrachtrup was the first scientist to recognise the importance of NV centres for quantum information technology and metrology. But his area of research, which he essentially established, radiates far beyond solid-state physics and quantum optics into the materials and life sciences. For example, the high photostability of NV centres was used to maximise the resolution of fluorescence microscopy. The development of fluorescent nanodiamonds for labelling biomolecules has likewise been made possible by NV centres. Wrachtrup’s work also laid the foundation for the production of diamond-based single-photon sources and a new class of diamond-based magnetic sensors.
Since 2000 Jörg Wrachtrup has led the 3rd Institute of Physics at the University of Stuttgart, which he joined following his studies and doctorate at the Free University of Berlin, a research stay at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Bordeaux, and five years as a research associate at Chemnitz University of Technology. For his research, Wrachtrup has already won several national and international recognitions, including an appointment as Max Planck Fellow and, just this year, an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council (ERC).
