About me

I am currently (since March 2017) a Senior Postdoc at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Vienna in the group of Marcus Huber.
As of August 2018 I am leading research in the FWF Stand-Alone Project "Resources for flexible quantum information processing" (P 31339-N27), which will investigate the interplay, conversion, and flexible use of resources for quantum computation, quantum metrology, and quantum thermodynamics.
My research interests lie in the overlap of quantum information & computation with  quantum optics and quantum thermodynamics. Recently, I have been interested in investigating the connections between resources for quantum computation and quantum metrology. See the Research Section of my homepage for more details.

Previously, I have worked as a Postdoc (Universitätsassistent) at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Innsbruck, working in the Quantum Information & Computation group with Prof. Hans J. Briegel, where I have also been teaching courses in theoretical physics. I obtained my PhD (2010-2013) under the supervision of Ivette Fuentes at the University of Nottingham. Before that, I worked in the particle physics group at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Vienna, where I studied for my diploma, supervised by Reinhold A. Bertlmann.
Contact
Nicolai Friis
Senior Postdoc
Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Boltzmanngasse 3
1090 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43 1 4277-29566
e-mail: nicolai.friis@univie.ac.at

News

Two years after our experimental demonstration of quantum-enhanced decision making in quantum-classical (quantum hardware+classical learning environment) reinforcement learning [Sriarunothai, et al., Quant. Sci. Techn. 4, 015014 (2019)], we have now
demonstrated a learning speed-up in fully quantum-quantum reinforcement learning in an international collaboration led by Valeria Saggio in Philip Walther's group: the paper is out in Nature and on the arXiv: Saggio et al.,Experimental quantum speed-up in reinforcement learning agents, Nature 591, 229-233 (2021) [arXiv:2103.06294]. (image credit © Rolando Barry, Universität Wien)

More information and media coverage:Popular summary (in German, Austrian Academy of Science)
Articles in New Scientist and phys.org (English)
Austrian news (in German): standard.at
In our new paper just out in PRX [Schwarzhans, Lock, Erker, Friis, Huber, Phys. Rev. X 11, 011046 (2021)], we investigate autonomous quantum clocks, which harness the entropic flow to keep track of time. We separate the operation of such a clock into two tasks: (i) an irreversible process that results in `tick' events, and (ii) a clockwork that structures the entropic flow by concentrating the probability for such ticks to occur within well defined narrow time intervals. We identify this second process, which we call autonomous temporal probability concentration (ATPC), as being crucial for obtaining a clock of high quality. We study the resource requirements for APTC and the trade-offs between these resources. (Image credit: IQOQI Vienna/Harald Ritsch)
Parameter estimation is a taks that is often studied in the "local" regime, where small flucutations in a local neighbourhood of some already well-known parameter value are being estimated. There, methods based on the Cramër-Rao bound apply. In our new paper [Morelli, Usui, Agudelo, Friis, Quantum Sci. Technol. 6, 025018 (2021)], we investigate a different parameter estimation paradigm: Bayesian estimation, where initial knowledge is updated based on newly obtained information. We study Bayesian estimation problems, including the esitmation of displacements, phases, and squeezing, using practically easily reliazable strategies based on Gaussian probe states and measurements.
In our latest paper just published in Nature [Erhard, Poulsen Nautrup et al., Entangling logical qubits with lattice surgery, Nature 589, 220--224 (2021), arXiv:2006.03071], we report on the experimental realization of lattice surgery between two topologically encoded qubits in a 10-qubit ion trap. In particular, we demonstrate entanglement between two logical qubits encoded in two 4-qubit surface codes and we implement logical state teleportation between them.

Press release from IQOQI Innsbruck (English),
Phys.org (English), Physics World (English)
Austrian news (in German): ORF & der Standard
In our newly published paper "High-Dimensional Pixel Entanglement: Efficient Generation and Certification" [Herrera Valencia et al., Quantum 4, 376 (2020)] in collaboration with BBQ Lab at Heriot-Watt, we present new methods for creating and certifying high-dimensional entanglement between spatial modes of light. We are able to certify record values for entanglement of formation (4.0±0.1 ebits in local dimension 31) and Schmidt number (55 in dimension 97).

Press release from IQOQI Vienna (English),
Austrian news (in German): der Standard
Starting October 2020, I took on the responsibility of providing quality control and copy-editing for Quantum Views, invited perspective pieces for selected articles published in Quantum, the open-access peer-reviewed journal for quantum science and related fields.
In our new paper "Teleporting quantum information encoded in fermionic modes", just out in Physical Review A 101, 052326 (2020), we take a closer look at the influence of superselection rules on teleportation (and what it even means to "teleport") using fermionic mode entanglement.
The notion of measurement forms an integral part of quantum mechanical reasoning. In our paper "Ideal Projective Measurements Have Infinite Resource Costs" [Y. Guryanova, N. Friis, and M. Huber, Quantum 4, 222 (2020)], we show that ideal measurements are impossible and establish a framework for studying non-ideal measurements which can approximate ideal measurements at finite energy cost.
In our latest paper out on the arXiv [H. Poulsen Nautrup, N. Delfosse, V. Dunjko, H. J. Briegel, and N. Friis, Quantum 3, 215 (2019)], we present a reinforcement learning approach for optimizing and adapting quantum error correction codes. In our aproach, agents learn to design good error correction codes that use as few qubits as possible and they are able to transfer their experience from one situation to another.
Thermodynamics implies that measurements are non-ideal and require an input of energy. In our paper `Work estimation and work fluctuations in the presence of non-ideal measurements', we explore the consequences of non-ideal measurements for work estimation [T. Debarba, G. Manzano, Y. Guryanova, M. Huber, and N. Friis, New J. Phys. 21, 113002 (2019), arXiv:1902.08568].
Correlations have an energy cost that we investigate in our new paper: Thermodynamically optimal creation of correlations [F. Bakhshinezhad, F. Clivaz, G. Vitagliano, P. Erker, A. T. Rezakhani, M. Huber, and N. Friis, J. Phys. A Math. Theor. 52, 465303 (2019), arXiv:1904.07942]. In particular, we present mathematical tools for determining the existence of symmetrically thermalizing unitaries necessary saturate entropic bounds on the energy cost of correlations.
Our review "Trade-Off Between Work and Correlations in Quantum Thermodynamics" has been published as a chapter in: Thermodynamics in the Quantum Regime, Chapter 30, edited by F. Binder, L. A. Correa, C. Gogolin, J. Anders, and G. Adesso (Springer 2019) [arXiv:1803.06884].
Picture
Image credit: Christian Murzek 2018
Every wondered about the different worlds inhabited by theorists and experimentalists? Find out more in this wonderful blog post about our new review paper "Entanglement certification from theory to experiment", fresh out in Nat. Rev. Phys. 1, 72-87 (2019).
Our paper entitled "Speeding-up the decision making of a learning agent using an ion trap quantum processor", has now been published in Quantum Science and Technology. We report on a first proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating a quantum speed-up in the deliberation time of quantum learning agents w.r.t. to their classical counterparts [Sriarunothai, Wölk, Giri, Friis, Dunjko, Briegel, Wunderlich, Quant. Sci. Techn. 4, 015014 (2019), arXiv:1709.01366].
 Our experiment & theory collaboration paper "Measurements in two bases are sufficient for certifying high-dimensional entanglement" has appeared online in Nat. Phys. 14, 1032 (2018) [earlier version available at arXiv:1709.07344].

In this work, we develop efficient new techniques for certifying high-dimensional entanglement using measurements in only two bases. We demonstrate the usefulness of this method: we certify 9-dimensional entanglement of two photons entangled in their orbital angular momentum. (Image credit: upper: Mehul Malik, lower: IQOQI Vienna/Harald Ritsch)
The second installment of our investigation of the usefulness and limitations of Gaussian operations in quantum thermodynamics is now available on the arXiv: Precision and Work Fluctuations in Gaussian Battery Charging, has now been published in Quantum 2, 61 (2018).
In a recent collaboration with Innsbruck and Ulm, we have been able track the dynamics of the development of genuine multipartite entanglement in groups of up to 5 neighbours in a chain of 20 fully controlled trapped-ion qubits. The paper hast just been published in Physical Review X [Friis, Marty et al., Phys. Rev. X 8, 021012 (2018)]. (Image credit: IQOQI Innsbruck/Harald Ritsch)

Press release from IQOQI Innsbruck (English),
Phys.org (English), IEEE Spectrum (English)
Austrian news (in German): ORF & der Standard
Our paper on "Flexible resources for quantum metrology", New J. Phys. 19, 063044 (2017) [arXiv:1610.09999], discussing how 2D cluster states can be used as resources for parameter estimation, has been selected by the editors of New Journal of Physics for inclusion in the 'Highlights of 2017' collection.
I feel very honored and happy to have been selected as the recipient of the Entropy 2018 Young Investigator Award. On this occasion I will give a talk at the conference “Entropy 2018: From Physics to Information Sciences and Geometry”.
I have recently joined the International Editorial Board of the Journal of Physics Communications by IoP. The journal is fully open access and is committed to rigorous peer review assessing the scientific quality and ensuring that contributions advance the respective research areas but explicitly allows for the inclusion of negative or null results and replication studies. 
Read about an exciting new method to transfer quantum information between quantum memories and quantum processors in "Fault-tolerant interface between quantum memories and quantum processors" which was just published in Nat. Commun. 8, 1321 (2017) [arXiv:1609.08062].

Press release from the University of Innsbruck (English)
Austrian news (in German): ORF Tirol & der Standard
Phys.org coverage (English)
IEEE Spectrum Article (English)
"Geometry of two-qubit states with negative conditional entropy", our recent paper contrasting a variety of different entanglement detection criteria geometrically, has been published in J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 50, 125301 (2017) [arXiv:1609.04144].

Update: The article is now fully open access.
Our new article on quantum thermodynamics entitled "Passivity and practical work extraction using Gaussian operations" has been published in the New Journal of Physics: New J. Phys. 18, 113028 (2016) [arXiv:1608.04977].