Dr Yusuf Karli
Yusuf is the John and Dorothy Meggitt Fellow in Physics, and is a Director of Studies in Natural Sciences (Physical).
Biography
Yusuf grew up in Adıyaman, Turkey and studied Physics at the İzmir Institute of Technology, where he completed his BSc and MSc degrees. He then moved to the University of Innsbruck, Austria, to pursue his PhD under the supervision of Professor Gregor Weihs. During his PhD, he also visited several distinguished research groups across Europe as a guest researcher, including those led by Armando Rastelli (Johannes Kepler University Linz), Tobias Heindel (Technical University of Berlin), Doris Reiter (Technical University of Dortmund), and Mete Atatüre (University of Cambridge).
After completing his PhD in 2024, he joined the Cavendish Laboratory as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, working collaboratively with both Mete Atatüre’s Quantum Optical Materials Systems Group and Dorian Gangloff’s Quantum Engineering Group.
Teaching
Yusuf serves as one of our Director of Studies for Natural Sciences (Physical), supporting students as they progress through the Natural Sciences Tripos. He is also committed to science communication and outreach, coordinating QTurkey, a nonprofit organization promoting quantum science education in Turkey.
Research
Yusuf’s research focuses on advancing semiconductor quantum dots as a reliable medium for quantum science and technologies, including single-photon source generation (photonic qubits), secure quantum communication, and quantum networks. His earlier work centred on developing innovative photon generation techniques (technically: excitation schemes) to improve the quality of photonic qubits. A significant outcome of this research was the demonstration of a new photon generation technique, now known as the “SUPER” (Swing-UP of quantum emitter population) scheme, which uses two red-detuned, lower-energy laser pulses compared to generated photon, to coherently generate single photons. Since its introduction, SUPER has become an active topic of both theoretical and experimental study worldwide. Additionally, by tailoring excitation schemes, Yusuf and his colleagues demonstrated improved control over photon number coherence—a critical parameter for secure quantum communication, defined as the phase relationship between vacuum and one-photon states.
His doctoral research was awarded the Austrian Academy of Sciences IQOQI Thesis Prize, which recognizes outstanding achievements in quantum physics. In 2024, Yusuf was nominated by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and selected as one of the young scientists worldwide to attend the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. At Lindau, he was also invited to take part in the panel discussion “From Quantum Foundations to Emerging Quantum Technologies”, where he shared the stage with Nobel Laureates Anton Zeilinger and Serge Haroche, alongside Rainer Blatt, in a session moderated by Markus Arndt.
At Cambridge, Yusuf’s current research focuses on exploring GaAs quantum dots for light–matter interfaces and quantum networks, with the long-term goal of developing scalable architectures for distributed quantum technologies.