This position is embedded in the research project QUANTUS‐IV MAIUS, which is carried out by the QUANTUS collaboration of seven German Universities and Research Institutes. QUANTUS (“Quanten‐gase unter Schwerelosigkeit”) is funded by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and aims to investigate ultra‐cold quantum gases in microgravity.

Recent advances in our ability to generate and manipulate quantum-coherent matterwaves is now ushering in a new era of quantum optics, where the roles of matter and light are almost exactly reversed. We are starting to be able to create almost arbitrary matterwave-images, (de)magnify, and project them. Matterwave mirrors, lenses and cavities are rapidly becoming reality. We have recently even been able to demonstrate a coherent waveguide for matterwaves.

In the nanoLace project, we are going to build a novel type of matterwave lithography experiment, where we will exploit the fact that time-dependent matterwave lenses will enable us to reduce the wavelength of matterwaves by orders of magnitude. We expect to be able to generate arbitrary patterns as small as a few nanometres. Potential applications stretch from the fundamental (quantum-matterwave-optics) to the industrial (micro-chip production with nanometric structures). To this end we are now in the process of setting up a novel matterwave lithography machine based on Bose-Einstein Condensates. The project is fully financed in the framework of the EU Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) network nanoLace.