News Archive

• 01.06.2017 – The gray molasses paper by Graham, Matt and Brendon and their collaborators at Strathclyde and Fudan is currently “Most Read” in J Phys B! Well done!
  

• 16.05.2017 – Our conjugate gradient minimization code is now available here.
  

• 10.05.2017 – High-fidelity phase and amplitude control of holograms paper published in Optics Express.
  
  

• 01.02.2017 – We welcome our new Masters student Andrew Morgan who will be working on the teaching lab experiment creating a Rubidium and Lithium MOT.
  

• 30.01.2017 – High-fidelity phase and amplitude control of holograms paper now on arXiv.
  
  

• 22.09.2016 – Congratulations to Liam for being highly commended in the 2016 undergraduate awards.

• 01.07.2016 – Topological Kondo paper published in New Journal of Physics.
  
  

• 01.07.2016 – Congratulations to Liam for winning the prize for best theoretical physics project at the University of St Andrews!
  
  

• 23.06.2016 – Dr Jordi Mur-Petit visits St Andrews and gives a talk on quantum impurities as probes of complex quantum systems.
  

• 20.06.2016 – Welcome to our new summer student Sinead!
  

• 08.06.2016 – Dona attends a workshop on engineering quantum matter (EQM) at St Andrews and presents a poster.
  

• 25.05.2016 – Congratulations to Liam for winning the final year project poster prize!
  

• 23.05.2016 – Welcome to our new summer student Caroline!
  

• 25.04.2016 – Welcome to Valentin and Guillaume, our two new overseas summer students from France!
  

• 18.04.2016 – Congratulations to Graham and Leanne on the birth of baby Lily!
  

• 12.02.2016 – Graham has been visiting the Foot group at University of Oxford and the Himsworth / Freegarde groups at University of Southampton, giving seminars on our holography and vacuum characterization work.
  

• 01.02.2016 – We welcome our new bachelors student Serena, and our two new masters students Matt and Liam!
  

• 23.11.2015 – Topological Kondo paper on arXiv!
  

• 15.11.2015 – Our outreach MOT has been on display at Dundee Science Festival, attracting around 50 interested participants.
  

• 9-10.11.2015 – Donatella presented posters on our holography work and our topological Kondo effect investigations at the Hybrid Quantum Systems Far From Equilibrium workshop at Chicheley Hall.
  

• 30.10.2015 – We welcome our new Masters and Bachelors students, Matt, Serena and Liam!
  

• 13.10.2015 – LIAD paper published in Scientific Reports!
  

• 30.09.2015 – Dona gives the PhySoc lunchtime lecture, and Graham gives the Condensed Matter Group Seminar.

• 15.09.2015 – Pressure-rise paper published in Rev. Sci. Instrum.!
  

• 04.09.2015 – Dona, Graham, David and Phil attended the International Conference on Quantum, Atomic, Molecular and Plasma Physics at University of Sussex. Dona gave a talk on our vacuum characterisation techniques, and posters on experiment progress, holography, topological Kondo effect, sub-Doppler cooling and outreach work were presented.
  

• 02.08.2015 – David and Phil attended the 71st Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics at University of Strathclyde, presenting posters on holography and outreach work.
  

• 28.07.2015 – Thomas has written a blog post on his work in our group as part of his Laidlaw internship.
  

• 22.07.2015 – Donatella and Graham presented posters on our vacuum measurement techniques and holography at the Joint Quantum Centre Mini Conference on Non-equilibrium quantum dynamics in low dimensions, at Durham University.
  

• 06.07.2015 – Liam, Thomas and Matt attended the Introductory Course on Ultracold Quantum Gases in Innsbruck.
  

• 06.07.2015 – Graham gave a talk on sub-Doppler laser cooling in potassium and presented a poster on our outreach apparatus at the Joint Quantum Centre Symposium, Durham University.
  

• 23.06.2015 – Dona presented a holography poster at CLEO/Europe – EQEC 2015 in Munich.
  

• 15.06.2015 – We welcome our new summer students, Danielle, Liam, Thomas and Matt!
  

• 05.06.2015 – David gives a talk at the School’s annual postgraduate day
  

• 23.05.2015 – Congratulations to Matthew, Callum and Peter for completing their Masters degrees!
  
  

• 08.05.2015 – Feedback paper published in J Phys B!
  
  

• 07.05.2015 – New version of LIAD paper on arXiv
  

• 24.04.2015 – Dave has presented a poster at the 21st Young Atom Opticians Conference in Zurich

• 25.03.2015 – We demonstrated the outreach holography exhibit at the SUPA AGM 2015.

• 24.03.2015 – We presented two posters at the 6th Annual SU2P symposium.

• 24.03.2015 – Multi-wavelength holograms paper published in Optics Express!

• 07.03.2015 – We demonstrated the outreach holography exhibit at the local Science Discovery Day.

• 23.02.2015 – Dona & Phil travelled to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for the International Year of Light launch, where they demonstrated our portable Magneto-Optical Trap along with our colleagues at the University of Strathclyde. The setup uses two main techniques to create a compact and robust apparatus suitable for public engagement activities: a grating MOT, where the required cooling beams are generated from a single laser beam incident on a microfabricated grating, and DAVLL spectroscopy, which uses an antisymmetric signal generated from rubidium vapour placed in a longitudinal magnetic field to create a lock with a significant recapture range. The event was a great success, with people being particularly amazed that the cloud of cold atoms represented one of the coldest points in the universe.

• 07.01.2015 – Multi-wavelength holograms paper on arXiv!

• 06.01.2015 – Dona has been elected to the committee of the Institute of Physics Quantum Optics, Quantum Information and Quantum Control Group

• 17.12.2014 – Dona attended the IOP Topical Research Meeting on Hybrid Quantum Systems in Nottingham, presenting a poster.

• 22.11.2014 – We have received funding from University of St Andrews, the Scottish Funding Council, and the Knowledge Transfer Network to build a portable Magneto-Optical Trap to be used for outreach, in collaboration with Dr Paul Griffin at University of Strathclyde. The apparatus will appear at various exhibits, starting with the Scottish International Year of Light event launch at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on February 23rd, 2015.

• 19.11.2014 – Dona gave a seminar at the Joint Quantum Centre in Durham / Newcastle.

• 20.10.2014 – Conjugate Gradients paper published in Optics Express!

• 20.10.2014 – Dona, Graham, Dave and Phil attended the Workshop on Many-body Dynamics and Open Quantum Systems 2014 at the Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow, and presented posters on experiment progress, holographic trap calculation and LIAD.

• 08.10.2014 – Dona gave a talk at Frontiers of Matter Wave Optics 2014 at the Orthodox Academy of Crete.
  

• 26.09.2014 – Phil has returned from the École Prédoctorale de Physique des Houches – Ultracold Atoms and Precision Measurements summer school in Les Houches.

• 12.09.2014 – Phil and Dave have been attending the “Condensed Matter Physics and Quantum Information” CM-DTC summer school in Aviemore

• 11.09.2014 – Feedback paper on the arXiv!
  
  
• 01.09.2014 – Welcome to our “new” PhD student, Phil

• 04.08.2014 – Conjugate Gradients paper on the arXiv!

• 16.07.2014 – David has attended the Enrico Fermi Summer School on Quantum Matter at Ultralow Temperatures in Varenna.

• 02.07.2014 – Graham has been speaking about student development and research engagement at two outreach events within the School: Teacher’s Together and the Sutton Trust Summer School.

• 23.06.2014 – Welcome to our new cohort of summer students: Thomas, Matthew and Callum

• 23.05.2014  –  Further congratulations to our MPhys student Phil, who won the School of Physics and Astronomy Prize for Best MPhys Project 2014 for his work on holographic atom traps
  

• 13.05.2014  –  Congratulations to Lucie and Phil on completing their Masters degrees!

• 16.04.2014 – Graham gives the QuantumSoc lunchtime lecture – “Quantum simulators under the microscope“

• 11.04.2014 – Donatella gives the QuantumSoc lunchtime lecture – “Cold atoms in holographic traps“.

• 17.03.2014 – New website!

• 13.02.2014 – Graham, David, Lucie and Phil attend the SU2P / SUPA / IMPP Quantum Technologies Colloquium at University of Strathclyde

• 03.02.2014 – Welcome to our new students Phil and Lucie, and to our returning postdoc Graham

• 30.01.2014 – Pressure-rise paper on arXiv
  

• 22.12.2013 – LIAD paper on arXiv
  

• 01.10.2013 – Welcome to our new PhD student David!

• 30.04.2013 – New grant: “Advanced atom traps for precise rotation sensing” from the Leverhulme Trust, jointly with Aidan Arnold at Strathclyde

• 01.02.2013 – We are joined by three new project students: Lizzie, Sithu and Ayumi

• 01.12.2012 – Lara moves on to a postdoc position in Amsterdam, working on arrays of magnetic microtraps for quantum information science in the group of Robert Spreeuw

• 30.10.2012 – Lara gives a talk to Toptica in Munich

• 28.09.2012 – Tiffany wins School of Physics and Astronomy Prize for Best MPhys Project and is the International Prize Winner in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences category of the Undergraduate Awards for her work on conjugate gradient optimisation of holograms

• 05.09.2012 – Lara gives a talk in Amsterdam

• 24.07.2012 – Dona presents a poster at ICAP 2012 at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris

• 20.06.2012 -Congratulations to Tiffany and Sarah for their degree achievement!

• 04.06.2012 – Welcome to our summer students Lizzie and Peter!

• 24.05.2012 – Lara gives talks in Hannover, Heidelberg and Tuebingen

• 14.05.2012 – Graham and Lara presented posters at the Quantum Interfaces: Integrating Light, Atoms and Solid-State Devices conference hosted at Chicheley Hall, Milton Keynes
  
  
• 19.04.2012 – Congratulations to the new Dr. Torralbo-Campo after passing her viva!
  

  

  Ready…

  

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• 10.04.2012 – Our ring trap article has been selected in the Best of 2011 collection of Physica Scripta

• 29.03.2012 – Lara gave a talk in YAO 2012, hosted in Krakow
  
  
• 24.02.2012 – Congratulations to Lara for submitting her thesis!

• 15.02.2012 – Dr. Bruce passes his viva! Congratulations!
  

  

  

  
  

• 10.02.2012 – Welcome to our new master students Sarah, Tiffany and Donny

• 24.01.2012 – Congratulations to Graham for submitting his thesis!

• 14.12.2011 – CMMP11 conference hosted in Manchester where Lara presented a poster

• 14.11.2011 – Power-law paper is published in PRA!
  

• 14.10.2011 – Stefan Kuhr from University of Strathclyde visits gives the school colloquium

• 08.09.2011 – Power-law paper on the arXiv
       

• 05.09.2011 – Lara gave a talk at the 2011 General Meeting of the UK Cold Atoms-Condensed Matter Theory Network at University of Nottingham

• 15.08.2011 – Good luck to Graham as he leaves us to take up a postdoc building a Quantum Gas Microscope at University of Strathclyde

• 25.07.2011 -Welcome to our summer students David, Pierre and Steven!

• 26.05.2011 – Graham has been giving talks at Universities of Basel, Stuttgart, Strathclyde and Sussex about novel optical traps for ultracold atoms

• 10.05.2011 – Giuseppe and Lara supervise several experiments at Lab in the Lorry which was at Forfar Academy

• 03.05.2011 – The whole group attended the Quantum Coherence and Information Workshop at Ross Priory organised by Strathclyde University (with three Nobel Laureates…)
  

• 21.04.2011 – Lara and Sarah organised a workshop entitled “Exploring the Science of light” at  the Dalhousie Building of Dundee University to promote the uptake of Physics and Engineering by Girls. The workshop consisted of a 35 min presentation with several experiments related with IR to UV light and lasers. Around 70 students from different schools of the area attended the workshop which was one of the seven different ones organised in this event.
  

  

  

  

  
  

• 30.03.2011 – Graham is selected as the School’s representative to give a talk to the 2011 SUPA Annual General Meeting hosted in St. Andrews, as part of the competitive student research conference, where he finishes in a respectable second place!

• 20.03.2011 – Dona attended FOMO 2011 Conference, Tirol where she gave a talk

• 12.03.2011 – Lara assists at the University’s Science Discovery Day, as part of National Science and Engineering Week and the Fife Science Festival, which was hosted by University of St Andrews and attended by almost 500 visitors. She demonstrated experiments from the Outreach programme “Seeing life through a new light” including lasers and light, microscopes, the use of an endoscope and fluorescence demonstrations.
  

  

  

  

  

  
  

• 11.03.2011 – Michael Koehl visits and gives the weekly School of Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

• 04.03.2011 – Graham and Lara attended the PG Xchange meeting where Graham gave a talk entitled: Quantum Simulation with Ultracold Atoms

• 21.02.2011 – Ring trap paper published in Physica Scripta
  

• 14.02.2011 – Welcome to Alastair and Edward who will be doing their Master projects with us!

• 14.11.2010 – Dundee Science Centre organises a Family Open Day to celebrate the final day of Dundee Science Festival 2010!  Around 880 visitors saw our own outreach display, entitled “Beyond the Rainbow”. Graham, Lara and James organised interactive demonstrations of visible, infra-red and ultraviolet light, as well as a laser activity, an interactive computer presentation detailing how lasers work and how to create cold atoms, and a video of laser applications. This activity also appeared in the news!
  

  

  

  

  
  

• 10.11.2010 – Giuseppe gives a talk at the weekly cold atoms seminar, University of Nottingham

• 02.11.2010 – To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Laser, the group attends a special symposium event at Glasgow Science Centre hosted by University of Strathclyde, including talks given by S. Chu, E. Cornell, R. Glauber, E. Hinds and S. Barnett

• 27.10.2010 – Graham presents the Quantum Soc lunchtime lecture: “Atoms colder than space: How and why” to around 30 undergraduate students

• 27.10.2010 – Lara presents a workshop entitled “Exploring the Science of Light” during the Second Girls into Physics and Engineering event at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh organised by IOP and WES. The aim of the event was to promote the uptake by girls of Physics and Engineering. Over 180 students had the opportunity to visit and participate in the workshop where the girls could learn about IR imaging, understand the phenomena of fluorescence or how a laser works.
  

  

  

  
  

• 25.09.2010 – Congratulations to Graham and Leanne – married today!

• 10.09.2010 – The UK Cold Atoms-Condensed Matter Physics Network meeting has taken place this year at St Andrews during the 9th and 10th September. Our group participated in the event with Graham giving a talk and Lara presenting a poster.

• 07.09.2010 – Gordon Baym has given a series of lectures during the CM-DTC summer school on Foundation of Condensed Matter, St Andrews

• 16.08.2010 – Welcome to our summer student, Sarah

• 12.08.2010 – Ring trap preprint on the arXiv
  
  

• 03.08.2010 – Lara attended the ICAP 2010 conference in Cairns, 26-30 July and presented a poster
  

• 09.06.2010 – Graham presents a poster at CEWQO 2010, St Andrews 6-11 June

• 01.06.2010 – Welcome to our summer students Caroline and Tiffany!

• 03-04.04.2010 – Over 400 visitors to the Science in the City exhibition at Sensation Science Centre, Dundee, saw the debut of our own outreach display, entitled “Light, Lasers and Really Cold Atoms”. Graham organised an interactive “Create a rainbow” task suitable for all ages, as well as demonstrations with lasers, an interactive computer presentation detailing how lasers work and how to create cold atoms, and a video of laser applications.  Graham also took part in an “ask the scientists” session involving a school group, where he was asked a range of questions about physics. The event was designed to showcase the work of local academics at the Universities of Dundee, Abertay, and St Andrews, and to encourage locals to consider scientific issues and scientific careers.
  

  

  

  

  

  
  

• 15.02.2010 – Joseph has joined our group to do his Masters project

• 18.12.2009 – Lara attends the CMMP09 conference and wins the poster prize

• 05.11.2009 – Giuseppe gives a talk at AtMol Research Seminars, Durham University

• 29.08.2009 – Congratulations to Graham and Leanne for their recent engagement!

• 20.07.2009 – Welcome to our new summer student James!

• 19.06.2009 – Application Note “Generating light patterns for dynamic manipulation of ultracold atoms” submitted to Boulder Nonlinear Systems

• 17.06.2009 – Welcome to our summer students Takafumi and Sarah!

• 11.06.2009 – Congratulations to Graham for winning the Arthur Maitland Prize (Awarded to the student in Physics who has made the most outstanding contribution to research.)

• 10.06.2009 – School Postgraduate Day: presentations given by Graham and Lara

• 09.06.2009 – Seminar given by J Betouras: “Metanematic, smectic, and crystalline phases of dipolar fermions in an optical lattice”

• 01.11.2008 – Martin has joined our group to do his Masters project

• 27.09.2008 – Lara attends the summer school “Laser cooling and BECs”, Les Houches.

• 21.09.2008 – Graham and Lara attend the summer school “Cold atoms in optical lattices”, Oxford.

• 26.07.2008 – Giuseppe attends the ICAP conference 2008: July 27-August 1 and presents a poster.

• 20.06.2008 – Congratulations to Dona and Steve on the arrival of their new baby girl!