Beams to transform photon science with €2 million ERC funding
The NeXource project, led by Professor Bernhard Hidding, aims to develop next-generation plasma-based electron beam sources for photon science and high-energy physics. It is one of around 300 successful applications for grants from the prestigious ERC’s Consolidator Grant programme, from a total of 2453 submissions.
December 2019
IoP Business Innovation Award for long-established Strathclyde spinout company
Software and instrumentation manufacturing company HORIBA Jobin Yvon IBH Ltd has received a Business Innovation Award from the Institute of Physics (IOP) for the FLIMERA, a novel molecular movie camera with applications in medical research, disease diagnostics, screening, optically-guided surgery and tissue monitoring.
October 2019
Optical Peppermills
In a recent paper in Optics Express, we show how to control spatially rotating structures in optical cavities by using input light carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM).
October 2019
Strathclyde quantum technology partnership secures £4.6 million
A University of Strathclyde-led quantum technology partnership with M Squared, which is aiming to develop some of the world’s most powerful computers, has secured funding worth a total of £4.6 million.
October 2019
A single photon absorbed in two places at once?
In a recent paper in Physical Review Letters, John Jeffers shows how two separate beam splitters, each with 50% loss, can display joint coherent absorption when neither does it individually.
October 2019
Quantum Computers Built with Traditional Silicon Technology
A team of researchers from the UK and France have published research in Nature Electronics demonstrating that it may well be possible to build a quantum computer from conventional silicon-based electronic components.
September 2019
University to host new quantum research centre
M Squared, one of the world’s leading photonics and quantum technology companies, has opened a new quantum research facility in the University of Strathclyde’s Inovo building in Glasgow City Innovation District, which will be instrumental to the enhancement of M Squared’s ability to compete globally in the commercialisation of quantum technologies.
August 2019
Atomic 'Trojan horse' for a new generation of X-ray lasers
An intense electron beam that could be used in the X-ray lasers of the future has been produced in research led at the University of Strathclyde. The research has been carried out as part of the 'E-210: Trojan Horse' experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California, and is now published in Nature Physics.
August 2019
Radiotherapy targets tumours precisely - with less damage to healthy cells
A new way of concentrating radiotherapy dose in tumours, while minimising damage to healthy cells, has been proposed in research led by scientists at the University of Strathclyde. The study proposes that focusing high-energy particle beams on a small spot deep inside the body could potentially enable clinicians to target cancerous tumours precisely, while reducing the dose to surrounding tissue.
July 2019
Royal Society Research Fellowship for Strathclyde Physicist
Robert Cameron has received a prestigious award from the Royal Society to investigate how molecular chirality can be better harnessed to make food healthier and drugs more effective.
July 2019
Strathclyde Quantum Technology Hubs share in £94 million funding
The UK-wide National Quantum Technologies Programme, of which the University of Strathclyde is a major partner, is to receive government funding worth £94 million in its second phase of funding.
July 2019
Programmable Quantum Simulation promises breakthroughs in Materials Science and beyond
Cutting edge research by Strathclyde physicists has been highlighted by the European Commission in the EU Research & Innovation publication, Horizon.
June 2019
Successful Athena SWAN Bronze status renewal
The Department of Physics has had its Athena SWAN Bronze Award renewed in recognition of our continuing efforts in addressing gender equality and creating a more inclusive working environment.
June 2019
Galaxy clusters caught in the first moment of collision
For the first time, astronomers have found two giant clusters of galaxies that are just about to collide. Since large scale structures in the Universe, like galaxies and clusters of galaxies, are thought to grow by collisions and mergers, this observation can be seen as a missing ‘piece of the puzzle’ in our understanding of the formation of structure in the Universe.
June 2019
Poles apart: Determining the polarity of GaN nanowires and its influence on their light emission
A recent paper in Nano Letters from the Semiconductor Spectroscopy and Devices group presents a method to non-destructively determine polarity in a statistically significant number of 3D nanostructures and to directly correlate the polarity to light emitting properties. This new approach can nondestructively identify polarity in a wide range of other nanometer scale material systems which lack inversion symmetry, and provide direct comparison with their luminescence.
June 2019
Promotions
The Department congratulates Daniel Oi on his promotion to Senior Lecturer.
June 2019
Scientific documentary by Strathclyde researcher to be screened in cinemas across Australia
“Jeremy the Lefty Snail and Other Asymmetrical Animals” tells the fascinating story of Jeremy, the one-in-a-million snail whose shell coiled to the left rather than to the right.
May 2019
Hybrid Plasma Accelerators make a Wave
Plasma wakefield-based accelerators, driven either by intense laser pulses or intense particle beams, can generate compact and high quality electron bunches for various applications.
May 2019
New Chancellor’s Fellow joins the Department
We are excited to welcome Dr Alessandro Rossi who has just joined the Department of Physics as a Chancellor’s Fellow.
April 2019
Royal Academy of Engineering technology chair for Strathclyde Professor
Professor Keith Mathieson, Director of the Institute of Photonics, has been awarded a prestigious Chair in Emerging Technologies by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng). His appointment will enhance his research into technologies interfacing with the brain that aim to advance treatments for brain disorders, dementia and sight loss.
April 2019
Extracting something from nothing: A bright glow from empty space
Particles travelling through empty space can emit bright flashes of gamma rays by interacting with the quantum vacuum, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Strathclyde.
April 2019
Laser Cavity Solitons for Frequency Microcombs
A new frequency comb generator based on laser cavity solitons circulating in a microring optical resonator has been realised. Such device reduces the average power by an order of magnitude while increasing mode efficiency by 70%. Frequency combs find applications in optical metrology, optical atomic clocks, new GPS technologies and optical communications.
April 2019
First recipient of The Optical Society's Milton and Rosalind Chang Pivoting Fellowship
Araceli Venegas-Gomez, from the Department of Physics' CNQO group, has been announced as the first recipient of The Optical Society's Milton and Rosalind Chang Pivoting Fellowship, a program to "encourage young optical scientists and engineers of exceptional talent to pursue a newfound passion in areas like public policy, government and journalism". Araceli plans to use her fellowship to become a global ambassador for quantum technologies.
April 2019
Winter School on 'Collective Effects, Structured Light and Quantum Matter'
Thorsten Ackemann and Gordon Robb have lead the organization of a ColOpt winter school in Herrsching am Ammersee near Munich. Dept research student, Giuseppe Baio, won a joint prize for the best student talk.
March 2019
Frozen thermalisation
A new dynamical regime where energy remains unexpectedly confined for extremely long times to just a few sites of a lattice has been identified. The thermalisation of the energy to the background slows down exponentially with the height of the intensity peak. These findings are universal and apply to systems as diverse as Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices and light propagating in arrays of optical fibres with possible applications in quantum technologies and photonics.
March 2019
Professor Gail McConnell named as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE)
Professor of Biophotonics at University of Strathclyde, Gail McConnell, has been named as one of seven new Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from the University of Strathclyde.
March 2019
Professor Allister Ferguson named Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award recipient
Photonics Professor Allister Ferguson has been named the 2019 Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award recipient by The Optical Society. He has been honoured for his ‘extraordinary leadership’ creating major international optics and photonics research centres and programmes that support the global optics and photonics community.
February 2019
Strathclyde shares in enhancement of gravitational wave network
The University of Strathclyde has a significant role in a global network of gravitational wave observatories, which is to be upgraded to almost double its sensitivity. The Department of Biomedical Engineering hosts a variety of advanced technologies for fabricating laser mirror coatings – one of the key areas for the new upgrades.
February 2019
Light-mediated Magnetism in Cold Atoms
By shining laser light on a cloud of cold atoms and reflecting it back with a mirror, domains of spin-polarized atoms spontaneously form and arrange themselves in regular structures. These domains display configurations and phase transitions typical of magnetic systems.
February 2019
Zooplankton Super-swarms seen from Space for the First Time
Researchers from the Marine Optics and Remote Sensing (MORSE) group are co-authors on a newly published paper in Nature Scientific Reports which shows massive swarms of marine zooplankton can be identified in satellite ocean colour images.
January 2019
New Experimental Quantum Nanoscience lab
Dr Konstantinos Lagoudakis joined the Department of Physics in June 2018 from Stanford University. He is the PI of the new Experimental Quantum Nanoscience lab which will open its doors early this spring.
January 2019