2025
Partnership with graphene industry
Matt Coak's group is collaborating with Paragraf Ltd, a UK-based company pioneering the mass production of graphene-based electronics, with joint funding from an Innovate UK grant to scale up of the production of functional graphene devices to mass production scale and explore the potential of graphene sensors for electric cars, medical testing and quantum computing.
We are investigating the fundamental properties of this 'manufacturing scale' graphene at ultra-low-temperatures to understand what challenges - and opportunities - may be thrown up when these devices enter the truly quantum regime.
Read the full press release here
2024
New cutting-edge facility creates global applied research opportunity
A new facility will use cutting-edge analytical techniques to investigate the magnetic, electronic, and structural properties of matter.
Backed by £2 million of EPSRC Strategic Infrastructure funding, a team of experts at the University 麻豆精选 will install an Ultra-Low Temperature Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (ULT-NMR) instrument at the University.
Led by Dr Mingee Chung from the School of Physics & Astronomy, the interdisciplinary team also includes Dr Dominik J. Kubicki and Dr Lucy Clark (Chemistry), Prof. Andrew J. Morris (Metallurgy & Materials), and Dr Matthew Coak (Physics), and Prof. Teresa Carlomagno (Biosciences) as Leadership Mentor.
NMR spectroscopy, an atomic-scale probe, leverages the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei, providing a unique window into the inner workings of matter. It allows scientists to reveal insights in numerous fields such as chemistry, physics, biology, and material science.
Research enabled by the facilities will have applications in energy harvesting and storage, low-energy electronics and quantum technologies including sensing and computing.
Read the full press release here
New students join the group
The Condensed Matter Group gathered for a snowy group photo with all our new group members for 2024. Sadly, the snowman (front row, centre) left the group shortly afterwards due to health issues in the warmer weather.
Joint PhD studentship with ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
We are partnering with the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, a national user facility in Oxfordshire, to develop uniaxial strain environments for neutron scattering experiments. A joint PhD project with Dr Pascal Manuel on the WISH instrument at ISIS will aim to take prototype designs off the test stand and into the User Programme, available to scientists worldwide - pushing the cutting-edge of achievable sample strains but also usability and reliability.
Fellowship award to study 2D materials under extreme conditions
Matt Coak has been awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to explore the control of dimensionality in van-der-Waals materials and devices.
Our group, and partners around the world, will identify, synthesise and explore new 2D materials, searching for exotic quantum functionalities to form new sustainable electronics and new types of computing. Tuning nanostructures of these materials with extreme pressure will unlock entirely new physics and new applications in this space.
Read the full press release here
2021
The members of the Jeong group finally gathered after a long restricted access to the campus due to the pandemic. Emily, Jemima, Jake and Mingee on the photo. Jemima and Emily left Birmingham to start their PhD study, and our best wishes for their successful career.
2020
A sample of Sr2RuO4 that has been sculpted with a plasma focused ion beam, for high-precision measurement of the resistivity and Hall coefficient under uniaxail stress in Hicks group.
Clifford with former student Fabian Jerzembeck, in Dresden, Gremany. German tradition is to prepare fancy hats for graduating doctoral students.
2019
Ted preparing his dilution fridge for a high field neutron facility in Berlin.
2016
For neutron scattering at high magnetic fields, Ted built a horizontal dilution refrigerator. The core parts of the fridge fit on a cone around the beam, and that also fits inside the magnet.
A diagram of the fridge.
Casting the mixing chamber out of silver.
2014
The Condensed Matter group in 2014. From left, Joe Vinen, Alastair Rae, Chris Muirhead, Mark Colclough, Ted Forgan, Alex Holmes, Elizabeth Blackburn, Erik Jellyman, Randeep Riyat, Louis Lemberger, Lingjia Shen and Bindu Gunupudi.
2005
Joe Vinen received the Guthrie Medal and Prize (now known as the Michael Faraday Medal and Prize) from the Institute of Physics in 2005, "for his outstanding contributions to superfluids and superconductors." Here he is at the awards dinner, at the Savoy Hotel in London.