Profile

I live in Guildford with my partner and our cat, Heidi. My favourite hobby is scuba diving but I haven’t been able to do much since I started my PhD (I’m actually a professionally qualified dive master and have helped teach scuba diving in the past). I love unwinding with video games in the evenings and can often be found snuggled up with my Nintendo Switch. I also run an Instagram page where I talk about physics, quantum technology and my life as a researcher as well as writing articles about science for websites like Physics World!

I happen to have an invisible disability and I’m autistic which can be challenging at times but I try not to let it stop me from pursuing my passions.

My little gaming set-up 🎮

Our cat, Heidi

Diving in the red sea!

I study semiconductors which are the materials that computer chips are made of. Semiconductors have a conductivity between that of an insulator and a conductor. They make up most of your phone and computer. I’m trying to understand how electrons behave in semiconductors so that we can use a property called ‘electron spin’ for future technologies.

In fact, the field of physics that I’m in is called ‘spintronics’ which is a combination of the words ‘spin’ and ‘electronics’! If we can work out how to reliably control electron spin, we could make technology like quantum computers and it could also make your internet speed even faster.

Here’s a video I made explaining spintronics in 3 minutes:

and here’s a picture of one of some of my devices on a chip:

A photo of one of my chips through an optical microscope

and this is what it looks like compared with my fingers:

Holding a chip with tweezers

Pretty small, right?

I’m developing a new way to create structures in semiconductors using a machine called a ‘focused ion beam’. It looks like this:

The focused ion beam

and it lets me shoot particles at my devices. Sometimes we use it to add layers or little towers of atoms to the device, but usually, I use it to dig tiny holes and trenches:

A tiny hole made using the focused ion beam

This hole has a diameter of 10 micrometers which is less than the diameter of a human hair!

Once I’ve used the focused ion beam to make a new nanostructure (which just means that it’s really, really small), I measure them at extremely low temperatures to study the device. I then either apply HUGE magnetic fields or shoot lasers at them or both to see how the electrons in the material behave under these conditions. This is done using our big superconducting magnet who we call ‘Emily’. Here she is:

Emily the superconducting magnet

This lab is my favourite place to be on campus. It is a bit noisy though! The magnet system uses a pump to cool down to such low temperatures and it sounds a little bit like a steam train. Here’s a little look around the lab:

Inside the magnet, my devices can be cooled to a temperature of around 2 Kelvin which is -271.15 degrees celsius. I can then apply magnetic fields up to 7 teslas to the device which is stronger than the magnetic field of most MRI machines and the equivalent to around 700 fridge magnets. When I want to shoot lasers at the device, I use a series of lenses and mirrors to direct and focus the laser beam.

I use lenses and mirrors for optical measurements

At the moment I’m spending 2 days a week in the lab and the other 3 working from home. I’ll run through a typical lab day here because they’re my favourite days! On non-lab days I spend most of my time analysing my data, writing scientific papers, reading scientific papers, and doing computational modelling to accompany my experiments.

Here’s what my day generally looks like:

7:00 I wake up and make the first cuppa of the day and feed Heidi before I leave the house!

8:00 I walk into the lab which takes me about an hour. I used to take the train in, but prefer to walk these days.

This is where I work: The Advanced Technology Institute

9:00 Time to start work! I like to get started with my experiments as soon as I arrive as it often takes hours to cool the system down to cold enough temperatures. You might find me using the focused ion beam, working with Emily, or even doing some work in the cleanroom:

Working with the focused ion beam

Me in the lab!

Post cleanroom selfie. We have to wear lots of protective clothing to make sure we don’t contaminate the room

If you’re curious about what it looks like doing quantum physics research, here are a few time-lapse videos of me working in on various things in labs:

12:00 Lunchtime! I always have an hour-long break for lunch and try to go for a walk to stretch my legs.

1:00 Usually back to the lab. At this point, my experiment is usually underway (sometimes the experiments last for days) so I’m just monitoring it. It’s the perfect time to do some coding to analyse some of my previous data or write up some of my results.

Coding in the lab while I monitor an experiment

Then once I’m happy that the experiment is running, I’ll usually have a tea break and read a paper:

I read a lot of scientific papers!

3:00 Quite often I’ll be finished with my lab work for the day so I might head home at three to work at home. When I get home, I’ll do more reading, writing or data analysis. Sometimes Heidi helps me out!

Data analysis with Heidi

5:00 The end of the day (usually). I try my best to work from 9-5 so that I don’t burn out. In the evening, I spend lots of time playing with Heidi, cook dinner, watch TV, read and maybe do some gaming. At the moment I’m playing pokemon legends arceus, animal crossing and genshin impact.