Thilo Stöferle

Dr. Thilo Stöferle has been a permanent Research Staff Member at the IBM Research Europe – Zurich Laboratory since August 2007. His current research interests are novel materials for strong-light matter interaction and their opto-electronic applications such as ultrafast all-optical switches, quantum simulation and nanophotonic light sources, by harnessing quantum fluids of Bose-Einstein condensates with exciton-polaritons and integrated high Q/V cavities.

Thilo Stöferle studied physics at the University of Heidelberg and obtained his Master's degree (Diplom) on atomic beam experiments of adsorbate systems in 2001. In 2005, he received a PhD degree for his work on atomic quantum gases in optical lattices at the ETH Zurich in the quantum optics group of Prof. T. Esslinger. In his experimental work, Dr. Stöferle created new states of quantum matter in artificial crystals made of laser light, demonstrating effects of dimensionality and reaching into the strongly correlated regime. He joined the IBM Research – Zurich Laboratory in 2006 as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Exploratory Photonics group, where he worked mainly on organic lasing, quantum dot / polymer hybrid material and silicon photonic devices. 

Awards

• 2022: Finalist in Physical Sciences for Falling Walls Award
• 2006: Dimitris N. Chorafas award
• 2005: Medal of ETH Zurich