Levitated Nanophysics Group

Yugang has submitted exciting new work from the group: we use a neuromorphic imaging device (Event Based Camera) to track huge arrays of levitated particles, fast enough that we can feedback control three simultaneously.

We presented our exhibit The Unseen Wonders of Light to over 13,000 members of the public at the amazing Royal Society Summer Exhibition. We wanted to convey how surprising and useful light can be, showcasing beautiful optical rotation and (of course!) levitation. This project was led by Dr Margarita Khokhlova and Dr Emilio Pisanty.

Molly presented her talk “An Underdamped Stochastic Heat Engine” at the LeviNet funded “Out of equilibrium nanothermodynamics with levitated particles” at ENS-Paris-Saclay, and it went down a storm!

We were very pleased to welcome Prof Zhang Cao from Beihang University, with his group members Yuedong Xie, Guangyu Hou and Jinting Wen. 欢迎 您来 国王学院!

James successfully defended his thesis “Rotranslational control of levitated nanorotors using active feedback and cavity optomechanics”. Many thanks to Profs Gavin Morley and Riccardo Sapienza for examining the thesis.

We were representing the London Centre for Nanotechnology at a World Quantum Day event hosted by Imperial College London. We took both our Quantum Workshop demos along, with Joe, Jon, Molly & Sophie in attendance, and James gave a talk! There were about 400 attendees, and we were all extremely tired by the end of the day!

We are looking for an experimental PhD student and a theory postdoc to work on our exciting levitated analogue simulation projects, please contact James if you are interested.

Jon, Molly & Sophie had a great time at the 2024 edition of the Gordon series “Mechanical Systems in the Quantum Regime“, presenting posters, discussing science and livin’ that beach life! And there’s friend of the group Ben Siegel making an appearance.

We’re excited to share that The Leverhulme Trust has funded our crazy new project L-PAC: Levitated Physical Analogue Computer. Building on our work in nano-thermodynamics, we aim to use levitated microparticles to understand other physical systems, for example in biology.

This project will be hiring a lab-based PhD student (October ’24 or January ’25) and a theory Postdoc for 3-5 years, contact James or see our Vacancies page for more information.

It was our pleasure to host Ben Siegel from Prof David Moore’s group in Yale for several weeks at the beginning of this year. This was part of the STFC funded project EDIQuS, where we have been working on detection technologies to monitor and control arrays of levitated microparticles. It was a fruitful collaboration, and a lot of fun!