Harvesting sunshine: a solar energy family fun day

On Saturday 7th August, the unsuspecting public were challenged to ‘Meet the Scien- tists’ - a solar energy family-friendly scientific event, packed full of fascinating table-top demonstrations and exciting interactive activities, which took place at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. The event was run by a team of 15 PhD students and staff from the PSI, and organized by Darren Graham, Saman- tha Hardman, Andrew Thomas with quite a few helpers! The event was supported by an Public Engagement Grant to Dr Darren Graham, Dr Andrew Thomas and Prof Wendy Flavell.

From L-R back row: Stuart Stubbs, Graham Dinsdale, David Cant, Darren Graham, Ben Spencer, Patrick Lunt, Andrew Thomas (the tall one!), Nic Hylton and Simon Hammersley. Front row: Sam Hardman, Karen Syres, Louise Pogson and Wendy Flavell. Not on photo: Richard Lane, John Fielden.

The event addressed the key physics behind harvesting solar energy with activities including the solar concen- trator challenge, demonstrations of the latest solar technologies……and even a giant solar marshmallow cooker! It answered questions like ‘Why is the Sun yellow and the sky blue? – and gave the kids the opportu- nity to have fun with hydrogen-powered model racing cars and make a working solar cell from blackberries (and a bit of !) Continued on page 7

Newsletter AUTUMN / winter 2010

This newsletter consists of a combination of articles, highlighting both recent

grant successes, other awards and events of a professional or personal nature. Items for future newsletters and / or the PSI website should be sent to [email protected].

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE NEWSLETTER The photon science institute The photon The major news for the PSI has been the decision by achievement by David and Eric, the EPSRC to award the contract for the national and we are delighted they will Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) facility to be joining us in the PSI. We Manchester. This award – to Professors David Colli- should also thank the Dean for son and Eric McInnes (Chemistry) – will be for his support during negotiations around £4.6 M and will support new equipment and with the EPSRC. two post-doctoral fellows for five years. The facility will be housed in the ground floor of the PSI, and The national EPR facility will involve five spectrometers, will occupy most of the area that is currently under- Prof Richard Winpenny utilised. Obtaining this contract has been a major PSI Director Continued on page 2 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

Continued from page 1. progress, but this is advance notice that the ing THz sources for magnetic resonance. summer is likely to be busy. Bruker have many interests beyond mag- operating in the frequency range from 1 to netic resonance spectroscopy, and I hope 95 GHz. As it is a national facility, we will In addition to the direct funding from the this link will be useful for others in the PSI have many external visitors and this will in- research council, the contract has helped us to talk directly to a major instrument volve some other changes within the PSI. establish a strong link to Bruker, who are builder. We will have to use one of the offices for the sole manufacturer of the spectrometers the EPR facility – both for the post-doctoral we are installing. This should benefit fur- One further item: the PSI seems to have researchers funded by the EPSRC but also ther groups in the PSI, because Bruker will been very successful in bids to the Dean’s for the external visitors. We will also have fund an application scientist, to be based in fund for pump priming research. I’m aware to rearrange some of the screening on the the PSI and to work with us to develop new of funding for Mark Dickinson, Darren Gra- ground floor to ensure we designate areas experiments. We have already had interest- ham/Wendy Flavell, Steven Magennis and more clearly. The equipment will probably ing discussions about using PSI lasers for Neil Salmon/Med BenYezzar/Peter Wilkin- move into the PSI in July or August 2011; performing optically detected magnetic son. This is excellent news. If I’ve missed we will keep everyone informed of resonance, and discussions about develop- anyone, please tell me.

NEW ELECTRONIC WONDER MATERIAL IS ‘MADE IN MANCHESTER’

In October 2010, the scientific world was lator using simple chemical processes. system. abuzz with the news that two researchers at the had been Using an optical technique known as Raman Although there is a long way to go before awarded this year’s Nobel prize in Physics scattering to study the effects of the proc- we find ‘graphane’ in all our electronic for their discovery of a 21st century wonder essing on the graphene structure, last year, products, the work on graphene is now material – graphene, a single monolayer of in collaboration with Prof Geim’s research growing almost exponentially. Not bad for a hexagonally arranged carbon atoms. group, Matthew Halsall’s group was in- new material ‘made in Manchester’ only 6 volved in studying layers of graphene that years ago! had been exposed to a hydrogen plasma.

In the figure right, the left hand side shows the Raman spectrum of normal graphene, Single atomic layers of hexagonally arranged on the right hand side the spectrum after its carbon atoms (artists impression) exposure to hydrogen, the inset is a picture It is in the field of electronics where the ef- of the now transparent graphene layer fects of this discovery are expected to be felt (taken from ref [1]). The Raman spectra on the greatest, and since the first reports were the right shows a more intense D’ line, the made of the isolation of this remarkable ma- presence of this line is related to disorder in 1 terial, Dr Matthew Halsall’s research the crystal caused by the hydrogen atoms Graphene before (left) and after (right) exposure to hydrogen ; Inset: transparent graphene after exposure group, of the School of Electronic and bonding to the surface of the graphene. Electrical Engineering, have contributed to The changes were found to be reversible, [1] “Control of graphene's properties by reversible this work by studying its optical properties. disappearing after high temperature anneal hydrogenation”, R Nair, T M G Mohiuddin, S Graphene has the capacity to revolutionise to remove the hydrogen, and providing V Morozov, D.Celias,P Blake, M P Halsall, the electronics industry. However, if it is to conclusive proof that a new insulating ma- A C Ferrari, D W Boukhalov, M Katsnel- find its way onto everyone’s desktop, a way terial had been produced. Now known as son, A Geim, and K S Novoselov, SCI- needs to be found to convert it into an insul- ‘graphane’, it has the potential to replace ENCE, 323, Issue 5914, pp.610-613 (2009) silicon oxide in a graphene based electronic

Researcher of the year 2010

Prof Richard Winpenny has been wide general scientific and public interest, and he was awarded or started grants honoured with a University of Manchester featuring on the BBC News and subsequent totalling £5.4M. This is all the more Distinguished Achievement Award citations. remarkable given that at the time, Richard for Researcher of the Year 2010. was both Associate Dean for Research for In addition, during the year, Richard’s the EPS Faculty and Director of the PSI. In 2009, Richard published research in 22 world-leading research was recognised by papers, two of which immediately attracted the Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award, Putting sunshine in the tank – public engagement in solar fuel generation

and whilst, in general, the public are famil- iar with some of the concepts of solar power generation (such as solar panels), to the vast majority of people the concepts behind how we can use the Sun’s energy to generate im- portant fuels or chemical feedstocks are new.

The award will be used to address this prob- lem through the development of a high qual- Dr Darren Graham Prof Wendy Flavell ity solar fuel demonstrator for use at out- Pathfinder Fellow reach activities, such as the Manchester and Prof Wendy Flavell has been awarded an York Science Festivals 2011, MOSI Meet EPSRC Impact Pathfinder Award for Year of Chemistry 2011. In addition, a ro- the Scientist events and the International £45,719, to pursue public engagement in bust, self-contained and transportable suite solar fuel generation. The Pathfinder Fellow of ‘solar energy harvesting’ activities will who will undertake this work is Dr Darren be developed, aimed at families with chil- Graham. This award is linked to a previous dren aged 5-14, which will include an ex- £1.9M EPSRC consortium grant award to ploration of the way solar fuels are gener- the Universities of Manchester (PSI), York, ated in photosynthesis. Nottingham and East Anglia, in artificial Finally, a one-day workshop for school photosynthesis (www.solarcap.org.uk). teachers will be organised, which will be Our Sun generates 120,000 TW of power backed up with high quality on-line learning materials.

Dr CINZIA CASIRAGHI

A warm welcome is University, she was awarded an Ernest Op- respected expert in the field of optical char- extended to Dr penheimer Early Career Research Fellow- acterisation of carbon-based materials and Cinzia Casiraghi ship, to continue research at Cambridge. in particular, of grapheme. Her background who has been ap- Other awards followed: Alexander von spans from growth of amorphous and dia- pointed to a lec- Humboldt Research Fellowship in 2007, and mond-like carbon films to characterisation tureship in Gra- the prestigious Sofja Kovalevskaja Award in and application of carbon nanomaterials, phene Chemistry, 2008. This latter award is one of the most such as graphene and nanotubes. In addi- Dr Cinzia Casiraghi and is situated in well financed scientific prizes in Germany tion, she contributed to the development of room 3.320 of the Alan Turing building. and supported her research for two years as a deeper understanding of the physical Junior Professor in the Physics Department, processes giving rise to the Raman scatter- Following study of her MSc in Nuclear Engi- Free University, Berlin. ing in carbon-based materials and is a re- neering at Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and a search collaborator of Profs Geim and No- PhD in Electrical Engineering at Cambridge Dr Casiraghi is an established and externally voselov on graphene.

Advanced photonics techniques in biology Jodrell bank http://www.iop.org/events/scientific/conferences/y/11/photonic/ observatory

Dr Tom Waigh is principal organizer of This one day international meeting will ad- In December, following the retirement of Advanced Photonics Techniques in Biology dress some of the advances made in photon- Prof Ralph Spencer, Prof Lucio 2011, taking place at the Institute of Physics, ics with respect to imaging and spectroscopy Piccirillo was ap London on 11 April 2011. of single biological molecules, cells, tissues -pointed Director and organisms. of the Jodrell Bank Photonics techniques developed in the Observatory. physical sciences To register, go to the above link. are rapidly find- Ralph Spencer will ing applications continue as an in biology. emeritus profes- Biological Physics sor. Prof Lucio Piccirillo VIBRATIONS AND WAVES

Vibrations and vibrations and waves. topics undertaken Waves by Professor in the Photon Sci- The organisation of the book serves to George King, has ence Institute. provide a logical progression from the recently been pu- Franz Mandl, also simple harmonic oscillator to waves in blished by Wiley and is from Manchester, continuous media. The first three chapters the latest book in the was both on the deal with simple harmonic oscillators in Manchester Physics Editorial Board various circumstances while the last four Series. Based on a lec- and involved in deal with travelling and standing waves and ture course given by the writing of the their dispersion. The connecting chapter Prof George King George in the School book. Franz did deals with coupled oscillators that provide of Physics and Astro- some of the early the bridge between waves and the simple nomy over a number of years, ‘Vibrations theoretical work on temporary negative ions harmonic oscillator. and Waves’ is an introductory text that (resonances) in molecules, the sort of sys- tems that we have studied here using elec- presents the basic principles with an em- The book contains a number of problems, tron impact excitation. phasis on the physical characteristics of some of which are inspired by research

Defining the functional roles of muc5ac and muc5b of mucus in respiratory airways

Dr David Thornton 200 million people have chronic obstructive The results will pro- (Life Sciences) and pulmonary disease (COPD) worldwide vide a basis for iden- Dr Tom Waigh (2007, WHO estimates). Furthermore, tifying the key fac- (Physics and cystic fibrosis (CF) affects approximately tors that determine Astronomy) have 70,000 people worldwide. Although these the properties of been awarded a are different conditions and have a range of mucus and identify £368,896K Medical aetiologies, accumulation of airways mucus the molecular Research Grant for with aberrant physical nature is a shared mechanisms re- Dr David Thornton, Dr Tom Waigh Principal Investigator research into defining feature. sponsible for the the functional roles of pathological MUC5AC and MUC5B of mucus in The research will provide new insight into changes in mucus that accompany chronic respiratory airways. mucus gel molecular structure and organi- lung diseases. These studies will reveal new sation. It will establish how mucins contri- strategies for combating the complications Respiratory diseases are a major health pro- bute to mucus structure and whether other caused by the production of inappropriate blem with an estimated 300 million people mucus components interact with and modify mucus gels. suffering from asthma and more than the gel network.

LIGHTING THE E N E R G Y L A N D S C A P E A N D C A R R I E R W A V E - F U N C T I O N FUTURE I N InGaN/GaN Q U A N T U M W E L L S

A £10.3 million EPSRC 5-year Pro- Prof Phil Dawson contributed to the M J Galtrey, M J Kappers and C J Hum- gramme Grant has been jointly awarded to writing of the above research publication, phreys. Prof Philip Dawson, of the School of which featured on the front cover of the July Physics and Astronomy, and colleagues at edition of Physica Status Solidi C. The full Carrier localisation is thought to be a key the Universities of Cambridge, Bath and author line up is as follows: D Watson- factor in preventing non radiative recombi- Strathclyde. The grant is entitled “Lighting Parris, M J Godfrey, R A Oliver, P Dawson, nation in InGaN/GaN quantum wells. One the Future” and the main aim is to under- possibility is that nanometer-scale localisa- stand the basic physics and materials issues tion of the carriers can result from a purely of so-called “White LEDs” for use in the random distribution of indium atoms within next generation of general lighting systems. the quantum well. The pictures show the re- The promise of LED lighting is such sults of calculations of the local potential en- that the use of “White LEDs” could reduce ergy variation in such systems with specifi- the global amount of electricity used for cally the probability density for a hole (top) lighting by about 50%, equivalent to annual localised by random fluctuations in indium savings of $20 billion in the US and $3 bil- content (bottom) in an InGaN/GaN quan- lion in the UK. tum well of width 3 nm. DALTON TRANSACTIONS IoP optical group

The work of researchers from the School of Congratulations to Dr Mark Dickinson Chemistry is highlighted on the front cover for his election to the Optical Group of the of the current edition of Dalton Transac- Institute of Physics. The Optical Group tions, the Royal Society of Chemistry's jour- help to organize various conferences and nal of inorganic chemistry. The team meetings including the Photon Series of comprised Dr Louise Natrajan, Dr Ste- conferences, which takes place biennially. ven Magennis, Anita Toulmin and Alex Chew; the latter two conducted the Mark follows Drs Krikor Ozanyan and research as part of their 4th year MChem Patricia Scully, who have also served on the projects. They showed that bis-terpyridyl- committee for 4 and 8 years respectively, stilbene derivatives of Ir(III) and Ru(II) ions and enables Manchester to maintain a pres- emit green luminescence following two- ence in optics at the IOP. photon excitation with a femtosecond infra- red laser. These complexes are promising al- ternatives to organic dyes as fluorescent la- Optical Group bels for multiphoton microscopy.

NEXPRES (NOVEL EXPLORATIONS PUSHING ROBUST E-VLBI SERVICES

Co-ordinated at JIVE, Dwingeloo in The Netherlands, The NEXPRES European Community project successfully completed contract negotiations during the summer and has been awarded €3.5M. Prof Ralph Spencer led the NEXPRES Manchester group and €331K of this award will come to the University of Manchester.

The project started in the summer of 2010 and will last for 3 years. It is primarily con- cerned with developing 10 Gbps data trans- fer and cloud storage across Europe for e- VLBI. A paper on the requirements and ca- pabilities of bandwidth-on demand systems has been prepared as an EC deliverable. We plan to achieve 4 Gbps continuous data The project will lead to big improvements in A position at Manchester for a RA has been transfer to the Netherlands from radio tele- the sensitivity of high resolution studies in advertised and an appointment will be scopes in Europe, eventually rising to 10 radio astronomy and open up new areas of announced shortly. Gbs. science.

International symposium “Frontiers in photon science”

Prof Klaus Müller- Prize winner in Chemistry, Prof Richard N Gerard Meijer, Fritz Haber Institut, Berlin Dethlefs organised the Zare, Stanford University. international sympo- Mikko Riese, University of Manchester The lectures on Wednesday 13th Novem- sium ‘Frontiers in Pho-  ber were attended by 300 people. The Masaaki Fujii, Tokyo Institute of Technol- ton Science’, which ogy took place on 13-14 event continued on Thursday 14th Novem- November 2010. ber and featured the following speakers: Caroline Dessent, University of York Speakers at the meeting  Bermd Brutschy, Universität Frankfurt Prof K Muller-Dethlefs included the: Nobel Dan Neumark, University of California, Berkeley Prize winner in physics, David Binks, University of Manchester Prof Wolfgang Ketterle, Massachusetts In- Tim Softley, stitute of Technology; and Wolf Foundation Karl Kleinermanns, Universität Düsseldorf FROGS AND PHYSICS

Dr Mark Dickinson of the School of Through a series of tion, taking scientific measurements using Physics and Astronomy and Mr Andrew lectures and practical high quality equipment and uncovering how Gray of The Manchester Museum, organised activities, pupils util- this translates into conservation in action. A-Level study days to take place on 5 and 16 ised Museum collec- November 2010. tions to understand how research is un- dertaken and came face-to-face with practicing researchers.

In the PSI, students got first hand experi- ence of working with a live animal collec-

1st PRIZE for lay summary http://www.researchsupport.eps.manchester.ac.uk/theword/?p=1210 In the Annual Lay Summary Writing Com- 2010. Second year The summary outlines a novel way to gen- petition, organised in the Faculty of Engi- PhD Student, Louise erate fuel from solar energy whilst simulta- neering and Physical Sciences, Louise Pog- Pogson competed neously removing harmful greenhouse gases son, School of Physics and Astronomy and successfully against 95 from the atmosphere. By combining cutting PSI postgraduate student, secured first prize other postgraduate edge nanotechnology with specially de- for her summary entitled, “Putting sun- students and postdocs, signed light harvesting compounds, reac- shine in the tank - using nanotech- with entries from all tions with carbon dioxide and methane will nology to make solar fuel”. Schools. Louise Pogson be driven by sunlight. In the future, this will provide sustainable and renewable fuels Professor Nancy Rothwell presented the This is only the second year this competition that can be stored easily and used on de- award at the Manchester Beacon Summit - has been held, and the first prize has been mand. For further details, go to the above Engaging Researchers on 10th November scooped by a PSI postgraduate both years! link and see PSI website news.

Manchester Plastic optical fibre (pof 2010) science festival

Dr Patricia Scully written photonic structures in poly- On 27 October, received travel grants methylmethacrylate (oral) Prof Helen from the Royal Soci- Gleeson gave a ety and the PSI, to  Femtosecond laser induced long period ‘Bright Ideas’ talk at take part in the 19th gratings in polymer optical fibre the Manchester Sci- International Confer- (poster) ence Festival, entitled ence on Plastic Opti- ‘Physics at the inter- Dr Scully visited the Kyoto R&D Laborato- face: from liquid cal Fibre 2010, Yoko- ries of Sekisui Chemical Company, and the crystal displays to vi- Dr Patricia Scully hama, Japan. Part of Prof Helen Gleeson Photonics Research Institute at the National sion and movement’. her duties as a mem- Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and ber of the International Organising Com- Technology, where she gave invited talks. Prof Jamie mittee was to chair sessions and during the gilmour conference she presented four papers: In addition, Dr Scully visited the Keio Uni- versity Photonic Research Institute, where Congratulations to  Polymer optical fibre sensing and tech- Prof Koike has developed special photonics Jamie Gilmour of nology (invited) polymers for ‘face to face communication’. the School of Atmos- pheric, Environ-  Palladium coated polymer optical fibre mental and Earth Sci- hydrogen sensor for humid environ- ences on his pro- ments (oral) moted to the level of  professor on 1st Au- Raman mapping of femtosecond laser Prof Jamie Gilmour gust 2010. PSI SEMINARS and phys/chem seminars

Dr Sven Koehler is the Please support and encourage your students 19 Jan: Single molecule bio-spectroscopy: new organiser of PSI semi- to attend PSI seminars. It is both valuable deoxyribozyme folding, genetic assay, and nars, which take place most for them and leaves a good impression on observing enzymatic reactions, Prof Seong weeks. However, joint visitors. The next seminar is joint with Keun Kim, Seoul National University, Ko- seminars with Chemistry, Chemistry and will take place at 14:00 in rea. and Schuster Colloquia are room GE005 Chemistry building: Dr Sven Koehler also being promoted. http://www.psi.manchester.ac.uk/

HARVESTING SUNSHINE: a solar energy family fun day

Continued from page 1. children aged 5 – 14 years old). The idea as enabling them to learn some principles of was to help them realize the importance of physics. Judging from the smiling faces, The audience came in large numbers from physics in tackling the problem of climate amounts of artwork produced and all corners of the globe, but was pre- change and reducing our dependency on marshmallows consumed, a great time was dominantly made up of families (adults with dwindling fossil-fuel energy sources, as well had by all (including the PSI team).

Sam prepares to cremate marshmallows using the Patrick and Simon explain why the sky is blue Sun’s energy….staggeringly effective, even in Stuart and Graham playing with hydrogen- and sunsets are red….using Dettol! rainy Manchester powered model racing cars – their idea of a dream Saturday! Please send any items you have either for The Photon Science Institute website or the next newsletter to [email protected]