We are leaders in engineering materials for next-generation technologies and host equipment that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
Our unique capabilities mean we can characterise materials at several extremes – low temperature, really small length scales, high magnetic fields, ultrafast timescales– while looking at several thousands of nano structures in one go.
This puts us at the global forefront, giving us the ability to push the engineering of materials for quantum technologies to its limit.
Here, we have the capability to do it all.
We have the kit to engineer materials at atom scale; determine the atomic make-up of a material; image the material; and understand how well it works within a device.
Our world-class material characterisations kits includes P Name, the only one of its kind in the world.
This ion implantation tool is a second-generation system that can dope materials to one ion with 20 nanometre accuracy, making it a critical capability for quantum applications.
While P-NAME can engineer materials to have specific functionality, the CUSTOM facility can measure and map their material properties. CUSTOM facility is the only cryogenic near-field microscope of its kind in the UK. This cutting-edge kit allows us to explore low temperatures at 30-nano metre length scales, mapping a material’s electrical and optical properties, plus its chemical composition.
Alongside our advanced characterisation tool, we also have other world-leading tools, such as the Nano–sims tool, which can identify the atom-by-atom make up of every material.
For example, it is able to differentiate between different isotopes of silicon (silicon 28 and silicon 29). It allows material engineers working at atom scale to analyse the atoms they’ve used, image the composition and identify its impact on the electrical properties.
These stand-out machines are complemented by tools such as our collection of transmission electron-microscopes, offering atom-by-atom imaging; our photo luminescence spectroscopy, an important characterisation tool for making LEDs; ultrafast laser suite and our electrical characterisation kits for solar cells.
Our impact
We’re working to harness the potential of quantum technologies – to help deliver advances in sensing and imaging, communications and timing, and computing – and to build a vibrant ecosystem that creates industrial growth and national prosperity.
Speak to our experts
Dr Jessica Boland
Senior Lecturer in Functional Materials and Devices
- Ultrafast terahertz time-domain spectroscopy
- Ultrafast optical-pump terahertz-probe spectroscopy
- Terahertz scattering-type near-field optical microscopy (THz-SNOM)
Dr Patrick Parkinson
Senior Lecturer in Photonic Materials
- III-V Semiconductor Nanowires
- Electronic processes in novel semiconductors
- Ultrafast photophysical experiments
- Hybrid Nanoscale Inorganic-Organic optoelectronic devices
- Single nanowire device fabrication
Dr Katie Moore
Senior Lecturer in Materials Characterisation
- Applying NanoSIMS characterisation to a range of different materials science and biological problems. This includes investigating the localisation of hydrogen in a range of materials used in demanding environments, and to investigate zirconium oxidation and hydrogen pickup using isotopic tracers
