Condensed matter physics
Department of Physics colloquia: Professor Seamus Davis
![Visualising electron-pair crystals in a conducting quantum spin liquid](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/content_halfwidth/public/event/2020/10/15/sd-oct20-47569.png?itok=yP6VP1wv)
Visualising electron-pair crystals in a conducting quantum spin liquid
Professor JC Séamus Davis, University of Oxford
Join Zoom meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/97403217895?pwd=QWFJTlgxVlBDSXZ0KzYzdnNxTE1oQT09
17 August 2020
Decoding decoherence
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Quantum information leaks away from a muon implanted in a fluoride crystal
A team from the Department of Physics at Oxford University has observed the decoherence process that occurs within quantum mechanical systems. Despite the many potential advantages of quantum computation, the integrity of any quantum mechanical system is vulnerable to interactions with its environment which cause any stored information to be slowly lost – decoherence.
5 August 2020
Next-gen solar tech
![](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/square_image/public/news/2020/08/05/flexible-perovskite-solar-cell-%C2%A9swansea-university-47236.png?itok=4LELkYfj)
Oxford’s Department of Physics along with Swansea University and Imperial College London have been awarded £6 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to drive next-generation solar technology into new applications.
29 July 2020
Innovation in the spotlight
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The Department of Physics was recognised in the Vice-Chancellor's Innovation Awards this year coming highly commended in both the ‘team work’ and ‘building capacity’ categories.
29 July 2020
Meet...Adam Wright
![](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/square_image/public/news/2020/07/29/adam-wright-500-47191.jpg?itok=-WSGs7ff)
Name: Dr Adam Wright
Job title: Junior Research Fellow, Mansfield College
1 July 2020
Detecting SARS-CoV-2 in less than 5 minutes
![](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/square_image/public/news/2020/07/01/nicole-robb-jr-450-47023.jpg?itok=lXK1vp-e)
A group of researchers from the Department of Physics at Oxford University are working on ways to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The group, led by Professor Achillefs Kapanidis and Nicole Robb, are working on the development of ultrafast COVID-19 diagnostic tests, as well as using computational modelling to study virus reinfection dynamics.
1 July 2020
Professor Séamus Davis awarded Olli V Lounasmaa Memorial Prize
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Professor Séamus Davis from Oxford’s Department of Physics has been awarded the Olli V Lounasmaa Memorial Prize 2020. The prize is awarded once every four years to a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to advances on low temperature physics and related fields and is named in honour of the founder of the Low Temperature Laboratory at Aalto University.
24 June 2020
Untapping the potential of antiferromagnets using light
![](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/square_image/public/news/2020/06/24/polarizing-an-antiferromagnet-450-46962.jpg?itok=oU2MY0Su)
Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) have managed to drive a prototypical antiferromagnet into a new magnetic state using terahertz frequency light. Their groundbreaking method produced an effect orders of magnitude larger than previously achieved, and on ultrafast time scales. The team’s work has just been published in Nature Physics.
20 June 2020
Oxford physicist at the European Parliament on improving healthcare with nanotech
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Professor Sonia Contera’s book, Nano comes to life, is a study of how and why nanotechnology is transforming medicine and the future of biology and, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the topic is the subject of a workshop at the European Parliament.
The Quantum Information Society invites you to a Q&A Session with Scott Aaronson
![](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/content_halfwidth/public/event/2020/06/04/quantum-computing-lab-tour-46895.png?itok=0TBdokkz)
The Quantum Information Society invites you to a Q&A Session With Scott Aaronson
We extend the invitation from Aleksei Malyshev, the president of the Quantum Information Society (University of Oxford)