The Blackett Laboratory Department of Physics Review Faculty of Natural Sciences 2012/13 Contents Page Number Head of Department’s Statement 3 Department Information 4 Astrophysics 7 Condensed Matter Theory 8 Experimental Solid State Physics 9 High Energy Physics 10 Institute of Shock Physics 11 Photonics 12 Plasma Physics 13 Quantum Optics & Laser Science Group 14 Space & Atmospheric Physics 15 Theoretical Physics 16 Undergraduate Studies 17 Outreach 18 Postgraduate Studies 20 PhDs awarded 22 Prizes and Awards 25 Grants Awarded 28 Technical Development, Intellectual Property & Commercial Interactions 33 Media, TV and Radio appearances 38 Staff Members 42 2 Head of Department’s statement The Physics Department has continued the International Centre for Theoretical In 2011 we set up a Departmental to thrive during 2012-13 and inside you Physics Dirac Medal to Tom Kibble and Industry Club, and in 2012 and 2013 we will find an overview over the past two the Julius Springer Prize for Applied established two main events for club years across the considerable breadth Physics to John Pendry; John was also members to attend each year. The post of our activities. Having spent consider- honoured by being elected a Foreign graduate research symposium where all able time over this period collating infor- Associate of the US National Academy second year PhD students present mation for the HEFCE Research of Sciences and a member of the posters and all third year PhD students Excellence Framework I have become American Academy of Arts and give talks (in five or six parallel ses- more aware than ever quite what Sciences. Jim Virdee won both the sions), is a very busy interactive day. extraordinarily talented, innovative and Fundamental Physics Prize and the We also now hold an Autumn industry productive staff we have in the depart- EPS High Energy Physics Prize. club recruitment event and bespoke ment in delivering both research and evenings for individual club members. education. This very brief summary can- Royal Society awards were bestowed not do justice to all their achievements on Tom Kibble (Royal Medal), Roy The introduction of £9,000 per annum but just highlight a few of the activities. Taylor (Rumford Medal) and Jenny fees for home students does not appear Nelson (Armourers and Brasiers’ to have affected applications for UG Members of the department were at the Company Prize) while Institute of places with the number and quality of forefront of the discovery of the Higgs Physics prizes were won by John our UG applicants continuing to rise. In Boson at the Large Hadron Collider in Pendry (Isaac Newton Medal), Steve 2013 the first students graduated on our CERN, dramatically confirming the the- Cowley (Glazebrook Medal), Ed Hinds new BSc in Physics with Science oretical work by Tom Kibble of Imperial, (Faraday Medal) and Paul French Education, offered jointly with Peter Higgs and others from nearly 50 (Joule Medal). Canterbury Christ Church University, years ago. which awards an accredited Physics Michele Dougherty, Jo Haigh, Chris Hull degree as well as a formal teaching Other research highlights included a and Jim Virdee were elected Fellows of qualification. paper which showed mathematically the Royal Society and Tom Kibble an that the wavefunction of a quantum sys- Honorary Fellow of the Institute of We have initiated a new scheme where tem is not just a statistical tool, but Physics. each UG student belongs to a group of rather a real, objective state. This around 20. Each group has associated attracted considerable attention, as did All our prize-winners are recognised on with it two members of the academic one which suggested how theories of page 25. staff who remain as personal tutors of quantum gravity which indicate a modi- group members throughout their time at fication to the Uncertainty Principle Another measure of the vitality of our Imperial. The groups aim to make might be tested experimentally. research, and a source of pride, are the arrival at college into a cohort of around researchers who won (or renewed) per- 240 less intimidating. They also, by Also in quantum optics a new integrated sonal research fellowships. These meeting around 3 times per week, pro- magneto-optical trap has been devel- included Royal Society University vide students with greater staff contact oped which makes a key advance in the Research Fellowships to David time and improved quantity and turn- development of cold-atom technology Jennings, Stuart Mangles and round time of feedback on their work. for high-accuracy, portable measure- Francisco Suzuki Vidal, a Royal ment devices. Academy of Engineering Fellowship to The departmental outreach activities Ed Kelleher and an EPSRC Early have gone from strength to strength, A rich stream of science has emanated Career Fellowship to Rob Nyman. thanks to Schools Liaison Officer Mark from data gathered by the Planck satel- Imperial College Junior Research Richards as well as Simon Foster and lite. These have included new results on Fellowships were awarded to Avi Braun, Hannah Woods, our Outreach officer cosmological parameters, constraints Eoin Butler and Chris Chen while and coordinator. Roberto Trotta has on inflation and on primordial non- Leverhulme Research Fellowships been awarded an STFC Public Gaussianity. In space physics a study were awarded to Professors Andrew Engagement Fellowship. on magnetic field measurements from a Jaffe, Terry Rudolph and Steve Warren. solar sail platform has been recognised 2012 saw the renewal of our Athena sil- for its potential for space weather appli- Our graduate students are an amazing ver SWAN award. cations. bunch and in this review we include some case studies of recent PhD and During 2012-13 we welcomed eleven Considerable advances have been Masters projects on page 20. new members of staff. Florian Mintert made in the development of low-priced joined the Controlled Quantum plastic photovoltaics and on the visuali- Our three Centres for Doctoral Training, Dynamics Theory Group, Heather sation of charge separation in bulk het- which took their first cohorts in 2009, Graven joined Atmospheric Physics erojunction organic solar cells. are going from strength to strength, not (supported by the Grantham Institute) only in their stimulation of scientific and Piero Posocco joined the The quality of our work has been recog- research and interdepartmental collabo- Accelerator Group to work on particle nised by a significant number of awards ration but also in outreach activities. In beam therapy (joint with Dept of and prizes to staff and students at all 2013 all three CDTs were renewed by Surgery and Cancer, sponsored by the levels. International awards included EPSRC. Gunar Nilsson Trust). Three staff were 3 appointed through Faculty strategic ini- Quantum Information. Concept, from STFC to Tim Horbury for tiatives: James McGinty (Bioimaging), Solar Orbiter support, from MRC to Paul Daniel Mortlock (Astrostatistics, joint Peter Dornan, Geoff New, John Pendry, French for biomedical imaging, from with Maths Dept) and Apostolos Michael Rowan-Robinson and Robin STFC John Adams Institute to Zulf Voulgarakis (Earth Observation). Smith retired but we are fortunate that Najmudin for accelerator physics and Furthermore, five of our Advanced all of them maintain formal links with the from AWE to extend the Institute for Fellows moved on to lectureships: Will department and continue to contribute Shock Physics. Branford (Nanomagnetism), Jonathan to research and education in a variety of Eastwood (Space Physics), Stuart ways. All in all we can look back and celebrate Mangles (Laser-Plasma Accelerators), two successful years where the depart- Alex Tapper (Particle Physics) and We have continued to receive a signifi- ment and the people in it have yet again Morgan Wascko (Neutrino Physics). cant volume of research funding with excelled in spite of the National eco- projects worth £57.8M starting during nomic downturn. We look forward to Congratulations go to Dave Clements, the 2 year period. These included 2014, ready to meet the new education- Chris Dunsby, Robert Kingham, Subu European Research Council al and research challenges that it will Mohanty, Karl Sandeman, Roberto Fellowships to Thomas Anthopoulos, bring. Trotta and Yoshi Uchida who were pro- Ed Hinds and Arkady Tseytlin and signi- moted to Senior Lecturer, Henrique fant CEC funding to Myungshik Kim on Jo Haigh Araujo, Dave Colling, Tim Evans, Paul Quantum Technology and to Karl Stavrinou and Toby Wiseman to Reader Sandeman on Magnetic Materials. Our Jo Haigh and Thomas Anthpoulos, Carlo STFC Consolidated Grants in Contaldi, Ulrik Egede, Terry Rudolph Astronomy and Space Physics and Professor Jo Haigh FRS and Toby Wiseman to Professor. Particle Physics were successfully extended and the High Energy Group Academic staff who moved to pastures won additional significant funding new were Elizabeth Lucek, Rik Jesik, towards the upgrade of the Compact Stefan Scheel (to the University of Muon Solenoid at CERN. Other large Rostock) and Dave Wark (to the awards included an EPSRC University of Oxford). A tragic road acci- Programme Grant on String Theory to dent killed Sean Barrett who had only Chris Hull and grants from EPSRC to recently taken up a lectureship in Chris Phillips for his Quantum Ratchet Department of Physics Staff 4 Department Information Head of Department Associate Head of Department Operations Manager Professor Joanna Haigh Dr Kenny Weir Ms Linda Jones Tel: 020 7594 7500 Tel: 020 7594 7501 Tel: 020