Atomic, Molecular and Quantum Physics Research Group

Group Overview

The Atomic Molecular and Quantum Physics (AMQP) research group is based in the Department of Physics and covers a diverse portfolio of quantum physics research spanning from antimatter to condensed matter, optomechanics, ultra-fast phenomena, imaging and quantum computation and simulation. The work spans both experiment and theory and has applications in several areas, including medical science.

Our mission is to perform high quality, internationally competitive physics, in collaboration with leading research groups and industrial partners in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

Associated Research Projects

Antihydrogen Research with the ALPHA and GBAR Collaborations
Simulations and calculations of antiproton interactions with positrons and positronium atoms
Positronium research, including interactions with trapped ions
Positron beam physics, and positron annihilation spectroscopy
Ultra-cold atoms with tapered optical nano-fibres as a quantum interface
Quantum computing and simulation to develop atomic, molecular and optical systems for quantum information processing
Development of quantum neural networks, based on atoms and photons
Femto-second electron pulse generation for time-resolved imaging of structural dynamics in the condensed phase
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)
Levitated optomechanics for fundamental measurements and technological applications
Adaptive control of soft X-rays for coherent imaging
Modelling, simulation and control of quantum systems with applications to quantum technology, spintronics and MR spectroscopy

Affiliated Staff

Postdoctoral researchers and honorary research associates:

Dr Chris Baker
Dr Alejandro Bermudez
Dr April Cridland (based at CERN)
Dr Dan Maxwell (based at CERN)
Dr Amit Pal
Dr Ciaran Ryan-Anderson
Dr Nikolas Semaltinos
Dr Davide Vodola

Collaborative / Industry Partners

University of Manchester
University of Liverpool
University College London
Queen’s University, Belfast
Aarhus University
UC Berkeley
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
University of Calgary
University of British Colombia
Simon Fraser University
Stockholm University
York University, Toronto
EPFL, Lausanne
University of Victoria, Canada
Purdue University
Marquette University
Curtin University
University of Lincoln, Nebraska
Brescia University
ETH Zurich
Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, ENS-PSL, Paris, France
PN Lebedev Institute, Moscow
University of Paris Sud
Uppsala University
Institut de Physique et Chimiedes Materiaux, Strasbourg
University of Tokyo
Kyoto University
Tokyo University of Science
Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz
Narodowe Centrum Badan Jadrowych ul Andrzeja Soltana, Swierk, Poland
Seoul University, Korea
Korea University Sejong Campus
Oxford University
Southampton University
University of Innsbruck, Austria
University of Nottingham,
University of Sydney, Australia
Aarhus University
Cardiff University (Physics, Computer Science, CUBRIC)
University of Cambridge
University of Southern California (USC)

Industry

Centre for Compound Semiconductors (CSC), IQE, Hitachi, M2Lasers, Siemens (research agreement), XUVASI

Industry Partners on EU Research Grant (Prof Müller)

Toptica
Bull SAS (ATOS), Supercomputing
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, IOF
AKKA Electronics

Research Groups

Quantum Computation and Simulation Theory Group (http://markus-mueller.website/)

Research Centres

CERN
STFC Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Cockcroft Institute, Sci-Tech, Daresbury
TRIUMF, Vancouver, Canada
Soreq NRC, Yavne, Israel
IRFU, CEA/Saclay, France
ILL, Grenoble
Ulsan National Institute for Science and Technology, Korea
Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon, Korea
Atomic Physics Laboratory, RIKEN, Japan
Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA

Networks

ALPHA Antihydrogen Collaboration (http://alpha.web.cern.ch/)

GBAR Antihydrogen Collaboration

AQTION Collaboration - EU Quantum Technology Flagship Grant for Advanced Quantum Computing with Trapped Ions (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/820495)

MAQRO Consortium http://maqro-mission.org/

US-UK Advanced Studies Institute in Robust Control of Quantum Networks (https://langbein.org/asi201820/)

Spin injection into dilute magnetic Gallium Nitride Transistors (CSC project, http://compoundsemiconductorhub.org/)

Facilities

Positron beam and trapping instrumentation
Positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) instrumentation
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
Numerical simulation and assessment tools for quantum information processors
Semiconductor fabrication and characterisation (CNH)
Medical Imaging (MRI through medicine)
Trapping and manipulating cold atoms

Collaborative / Engagement Opportunities

The AMQP group can support external organisations by:

Expertise on scalable quantum information processing
AMO physics and applications for quantum technologies
Compound semiconductor spintronics (device modelling, control, fabrication, characterisation)
Modelling, optimisation and robust control of quantum devices
Development and validation of new techniques for quantitive MRI and MRS

Latest Research News

Kickoff of the EU Quantum Technology Flagship Programme: https://qt.eu/

Assessing the Progress of Trapped-Ion Quantum Processors: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/news-archive/2017/error-freeintothequantumcomputerage.php

New quantum simulation tool developed at Swansea: https://www-2018.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/news-archive/2018/astepclosertounderstandingquantummechanicsswanseauniversitysphysicistsdevelopanewquantumsimulationprotocol.php

European Space Agency Design Study of Quantum Physics Platform with MAQRO Consortium: http://maqro-mission.org/news/

US-UK Advanced Studies Institute in Robust Control of Quantum Networks, https://langbein.org/asi201820/

https://advanceseng.com/controllers-quantum-systems-beat-classical-limits-robustness/

Publications

Selected recent group publications include:

1. An improved limit on the charge of antihydrogen from stochastic acceleration, M.Ahmadi and the ALPHA Collaboration, Nature 529 (2016) 373-376(doi:10.138/nature16491)

2. Calculation of antihydrogen formation via antiproton scattering with excited positronium, C.M. Rawlins, A.S. Kadyrov, A.T. Stelbovics, I. Bray and M. Charlton, Phys. Rev. A 93 (2016) 012709 (14 pages) (doi:101103/PhysRevA.93.012709)

3. The role of antihydrogen formation in the radial transport of antiprotons in positron plasmas, S. Jonsell, M. Charlton and D.P. van der Werf, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt.Phys. 49 (2016) 134004 (9 pages) (doi: 10.1088/0953-4075/49/13/134004)

4. Observation of the 1S-2S transition in trapped antihydrogen, M. Ahmadi and the ALPHA Collaboration, Nature 541 (2017) 506-510 (doi:10.1038/nature21040)

5. Cold neutral atoms via charge exchange from excited state positronium: a proposal, W. A. Bertsche, M. Charlton and S. Eriksson, New J. Phys. 19 (2017) 053020 (7 pages) (doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/aa6bb8)

6. Observation of the hyperfine spectrum of antihydrogen, M. Ahmadi and the ALPHA Collaboration, Nature 548 (2017) 66-70 (doi: 10.1038/nature23446)

7. Antihydrogen accumulation for fundamental symmetry tests, M. Ahmadi and the ALPHA Collaboration, Nature Commun. 8 (2017) 681 (6 pages) (doi: 10.138/s41467-017-00760-9)

8. Quantum suppression of antihydrogen formation in positronium-antiproton scattering, A.S. Kadyrov, I. Bray. M. Charlton and I.I. Fabrikant, Nature Commun. (2017) 8 1544 (6 pages) (doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01721-y)

9. Enhanced control and reproducibility of non-neutral plasmas, M. Ahmadi and the ALPHA Collaboration, Phys. Rev. Letts 120 (2018) 025001 (6 pages) (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.025001)

10. Excitation of positronium: from the ground state to Rydberg levels, C.J. Baker, D. Edwards, C.A. Isaac, H.H. Telle, D.P van der Werf and M. Charlton, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 51 (2018) 035006 (8 pages) (doi: 10.1088/1361-6455/aa9aa2)

11. On the formation of trappable antihydrogen, S. Jonsell and M. Charlton, New. J. Phys. 20 (2018) 043409 (9 pages) (doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/aabc71)

12. Characterisation of the 1S-2S transition in antihydrogen, M. Ahmadi and the ALPHA Collaboration, Nature 557 (2018) 71-75 (doi:10.1038/s41586-0180017-2)

13. Observation of the 1S-2P Lyman-alpha transition in antihydrogen, M. Ahmadi and the ALPHA Collaboration, Nature 561 (2018) 211-15(doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0435-1)

14. D. Vodola, D. Amaro, M.A. Martin-Delgado, M. Müller. Twins Percolation for Qubit Losses in Topological Color Codes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 060501 (2018).

15. D. Amaro, M. Müller, A. K. Pal, Estimating localizable entanglement from witnesses. New Journal of Physics 20, 063017 (2018).

16. A. Bermudez, X. Xu, R. Nigmatullin, J. O’Gorman, V. Negnevitsky, P. Schindler, T. Monz, U. G. Poschinger, C. Hempel, J. Home, F. Schmidt-Kaler, M. Biercuk, R. Blatt, S. Benjamin, and M. Müller, Assessing the Progress of Trapped-Ion Processors Towards Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation. Physical Review X 7, 041061 (2017).

17. A. Bermudez, P. Schindler, T. Monz, R. Blatt and M. Müller, Micromotion-enabled improvement of quantum logic gates with trapped ions. New Journal of Physics 19, 113038 (2017).

18. A. Bermudez, G. Aarts, and M. Müller, Quantum Sensors for the Generating Functional of Int

Project Contact

Enquiries should be directed in the first instance to:

Professor Mike Charlton (m.charlton@swansea.ac.uk)