Quantum Physics | Applied Physics

Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of quantum physics and help to unravel its potential for our society.

In today’s world, quantum physics has become a crucial area for both scientific discovery and technological progress. Especially since advances in the field of nanotechnology have enabled us to explore and manipulate quantum phenomena with greater precision, allowing us to enter the second quantum revolution (Quantum 2.0.). Can big data security issues be resolved with quantum cryptography? Could quantum computing help to achieve breakthroughs in medicine? And what about finding new materials, like superconductors that can help create electricity at room temperature? If you want to gain a profound understanding of quantum mechanics and discover its potential for our society, the specialisation in Quantum Physics is the right choice for you.

What is Quantum Physics?

Quantum physics deals with the behaviour of particles and energy at the smallest scales, at the level of atoms and subatomic particles. In this specialisation, you will dive deeper into concepts like quantum computing, quantum sensors, quantum communication, and related phenomena, such as the Spin Hall effect, weak localisation and the Aharanov-Bohm effect: phenomena that seemingly cannot be explained in the context of classical physics. You will learn to deal with these very complex and often counterintuitive features of quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein didn’t call entanglement the ‘spooky action a distance’ for no reason!

Examples of courses you will follow during this specialisation:

The course Quantum Information will teach you the fundamentals necessary to understand quantum computer operations and other recent developments in the quantum world.
Do you want to use modern quantum technologies, such as laser cooling and trapping, Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum sensing? The course Quantum Optics teaches you how.
Learn about quantum electronic transport, the quantum Hall effect, superconductivity and 2D Dirac materials in the course Nanophysics.

Studying Quantum Physics at the University of Twente (UT), you will have unique access to first-class facilities like the NanoLab in the world-renowned MESA+ Insititute. Next to taking courses that will help you understand the underlying theory, you will be able to engage in experimental research in your second year. You might, for example, join in on leading research projects at UT, working on the fabrication and manipulation of quantum bits (spin qubits, superconducting qubits, topological qubits). Or you could focus on improving the accuracy of measurement devices using quantum principles, leading to more sensitive sensors, which could impact fields like navigation, medical imaging, and environmental monitoring.

What will you learn?

As a graduate of this Master's and this specialisation, you have acquired specific, scientific knowledge, skills and values, which you can put to good use in your future job.

Knowledge
After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- have a thorough understanding of quantum concepts, like quantum field theory, perturbation theory, multi-particle quantum states, quantum teleportation and quantum computing and circuits;
- you understand the formalism of quantum mechanics for both single and multi-qubit operations, for open and closed quantum systems, including the density matrix formalism;
- you have a deeper understanding of the role quantum technologies are likely to play in society.
Skills
After successfully finishing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- can identify the engineering challenges and problems currently encountered in quantum technology research and development and you can discuss the opportunities and limitations of quantum technology in various applications;
- are able to implement basic operations and algorithms on a remotely accessed quantum computer;
- can use second quantisation to describe and analyse quantum many-body systems.
Values
After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:
- have developed multiple perspectives on the effects of quantum technologies on society;
- have a sufficient grounding in Quantum Physics to be able to understand the broad outlines of research work when presented with such (in the form of research papers);
- are aware of social, sustainability and safety aspects of Quantum Physics and you are able to analyse and understand these aspects and to integrate these elements in your scientific work.

Other master’s and specialisations

Is this specialisation not exactly what you’re looking for? Maybe one of the other specialisations suits you better. Or find out more about related Master’s:

Curriculum