New PhD student!

Welcome to our new PhD student Shivani who joins us to start working on spin-based quantum opto-electronic devices for quantum networking. Welcome to the QPL group Shivani!

Congratulations to 2 of our PhD students, Sheena and Finley!

Big congratulations to both Sheena and Finley who have won 1st year Postgraduate Research Prizes from the school of Engineering and Physical Sciences for their research posters presented at the Poster Event showcasing their individual research work. Nicely done both!!

Congratulations Dr Kogl!!

Huge congratulations to Max for successfully defending his viva and more importantly for using the Quaich correctly – well done Dr Max!

The first piece of equipment of our new Quantum Magnetometry facility has just been installed and successfully tested! A Bluefors dilution refrigerator will enable us to study complex materials and heterostructures and develop quantum technologies at milli-kelvin temperatures. Looking forward to learning some exciting new physics!

Everyone had a blast at our recent QPL Group Away Day 2023 – from tubing down the River Tummel to whisky tasting at the Glenturret Distillery near Crieff and then onto dinner in Stirling, it was a great day out….and we even managed to avoid bus karaoke on the way back this time!!!

We currently have one new PhD position and three new post-doc positions available:

PhD position:

1. Autonomous assembly of 2D moiré materials with quantum-level homogeneity

Post-Doc positions:

1. Bio-inspired pick-and-place assembly of single sheets of atoms into moiré materials
2. Exploring collective light-matter interactions in the solid-state
3. Strongly correlated states in designer two-dimensional moiré heterostructures

Please contact Prof Brian Gerardot b.d.gerardot@hw.ac.uk or Dr Mauro Brotons-Gisbert m.brotons_i_gisbert@hw.ac.uk (for Post-Doc position 3) for more information.

Muhammad (Junaid) has successfully defended his viva, after discussing his work with the examiners, Tim Taminiau from QuTech (Delft) and Margherita Mazzera. After some well-deserved partying, and a research visit to Stuttgart, he’s going to lead work at our Quantum Magnetometry facility: stay tuned for more exciting results to come!

Brian has been awarded a prestigious ERC Advanced grant by the European Reseach Council to assemble complex materials single sheet of atoms by single sheet of atoms. This will open the possibility to design the behaviour of electrons very precisely, to create novel devices not otherwise possible. Looking forward to much exciting physics over the next 5 years, congratulations Brian!

More information here: https://www.hw.ac.uk/news/articles/2023/2-9-million-awarded-to-advance-programmable.htm

The refurbishment of the lab hosting the EPSRC-funded Quantum Magnetometry facility has been recently concluded and Muhammad Junaid Arshad has started his job as Experimental Officer for the facility. First equipment deliveries will be with us soon.. stay tuned, exciting times ahead!

Two new group members have joined us recently. Malte Kroj is going to spend six months as a visiting master student, carrying out experiments on Fourier spectroscopy of single quantum emitters. Nick Werren is a theory post-doc joining our work on learning quantum systems, funded by the Quantum-Enhanced Imaging hub (joint with Erik Gauger and Yoann Altmann).

A great night was had by all sampling Robert Burns’ favourite supper of haggis, neeps & tatties…followed of course by some traditional whisky tasting!!

Several new group members are starting this week: Issam (PhD student, working on quantum magnetometry of 2D complex materials), Alex (PhD student, working on SiC quantum devices), Bibi (PhD student, working on quantum photonics with 2D semicnductors) and Harikumar (post-doc, working on fiber-connectorisation of quantum photonic devices). Welcome all!

Huge congratulations to Dr Cristian Bonato on his well deserved promotion to Professor – great work Prof Cristian!!

An 18-month Theoretical Post-Doctoral Research Associate position is available, under the supervision of Cristian Bonato on the application of Bayesian inference and machine learning to nanoscale quantum sensing and magnetic resonance. Please get in touch asap if interested!

Welcome to our new PhD student Tatyana who joins us to start working on fabrication, characterisation, and tuning of 2D quantum materials. Welcome to the QPL group Tatyana!

Aidan Campbell successfully defended his PhD today, with a thesis on ‘Optical Investigation of Many-Body Interactions in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Heterostructures’. Congratulations Dr Aidan, and good luck as you begin your new career here in the group as an EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellow!!

The Thesis Prizes are awarded each year for the highest quality submissions of a doctorate degree which have been examined within EPS in the previous 12 months – congratulations Zak on being one of this year’s winners!

Huge congrats to Aidan who has been awarded the EPSRC Doctoral Prize and will be working on the autonomous manufacturing of 2D-semiconductor heterostructures over the next 12 months. Well done Aidan!

Congrats to Dr. Zak Koong, who has been awarded the 2022 MacFarlane Prize from Heriot-Watt. The Prize is presented annually to the PhD graduate from Heriot-Watt who has made the most outstanding contribution to the research of the University.

Finley has recently graduated from the MPhys Physics course at Heriot-Watt and has now started working with Margherita on developing integrated quantum memories in rare earth doped crystals. Welcome to the group Finley!