I'm looking for a PhD student. To work on a project to Visualize strongly focused 3D light fields in an atomic vapor.

@durhamqlm.bsky.social members all ready to Celebrate Science this week at @locomotionshd.bsky.social ! Come and see how we use light to identify atoms and make your own colour-changing picture using nothing but sellotape 💡🌈

PhD applications are open! We'd love to have you visit Durham Physics to find out more about the(currently!) 17 available projects we have for October 2026 start. Our open day is November 26th, we hope to see you there! Find project descriptions and open day sign up links below.

A collaboration from @sonjafrankearnold.bsky.social and @durhamqlm.bsky.social

Homegrown fellow @lapgallagher.bsky.social describes his fellowship plans to investigate rydberg excitons in zinc diphosphide.

QLM certainly looks a lot bigger than it did a few years ago... A whirlwind introduction to all of the wonderful physics happening in QLM at our largest group meeting yet for our new members of the parish, and a refresher for some of our older members.

QLM is hiring! We're looking for a new Assistant Professor in QLM. This position is a theory position. Please find the job description below in this thread. For any academia-related queries, please contact Ifan Hughes ([email protected]). We look forward to receiving your application!

Greatly enjoyed giving a presentation about quantum computers to the IOPWales Physics Teachers Conference 2025.

Spending today with my particle physics colleagues celebrating 25 years of the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology here in Durham.

Hot off the press! Our @durhamqlm.bsky.social results in collaboration with group of @sonjafrankearnold.bsky.social in Glasgow have just been published. opg.optica.org/directpdfacc... Atoms, Iasers, big magnets and structured light. What's not to like?

A strong QLM presence at the recent @instituteofphysics.bsky.social QuAMP 2025 conference in Newcastle. In addition to many contributed talks, @kjweatherill.bsky.social gave an Invited talk "radiofrequency and terahertz sensing and imaging using Rydberg atoms". Both Maddie & Tom won Poster Prizes.

Summer lasted just long enough to squeeze in the @durhamqlm.bsky.social Summer Party. With the traditional non-competitive rounders.

Falch iawn rhanu mai fi oedd yn fuddugol yn yr Erthygl Wyddonol Gymraeg yn Eisteddfod Wrecsam 2025. Y pwnc oedd: "Pam nad oes sêr gwyrdd?". Gallwch ddarllen yr erthygl yn y cyfansoddiadau.

For the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology, we chatted with quantum pioneer + Nobel laureate Bill Phillips on the proudest moments in his career, the need for an "immortal qubit" and just why it is that the quantum world is so "deliciously weird." ⚛️🧪 physicsworld.com/a/william-ph...

9 mile walk to start my 27th year in Durham. Via Cathedral to Finchale priory.

It is 30 years (!) since my postdoc period at Yale started. I joined Ed Hinds' group, learned about cold atoms and how to make them bounce from magnetic mirrors, mastered an experiment, packed it up and shipped it to Sussex. Such a key chapter in my life and career.

Ail gyfrol o gerddi y Prifardd Mererid. Dylanwad cyfnod clo yn drwm ar llawer o'r cerddi. Pwyslais mawr ar obaith a galw am newid y drefn. #DarllenGwyliau

Can you explain a quantum concept in 3 min? Enter @instituteofphysics.bsky.social's #QuantumOnTheClock competition. A video competition for UK & Irish students in their final 2 yrs pre-university. 🏆 £2k prizes 🗓️ Open Now–Deadline 4 Oct 2025 ➡️iop.org/quantum-clock

Bade Bach gan Ruth Jên Evans oedd uchafbwynt y Lle Celf yn y steddfod i fi.

Nofel afaelgar. Cymeriadu cryf. Darllen difyr. Dechre da i'r gwylie! #DarllenGwyliau

New results! Experimental and theoretical characterisation of Stokes polarimetry of the potassium D1 line with neon buffer gas broadening arxiv.org/abs/2507.18353 Performed with colleagues at @durhamqlm.bsky.social Atoms, lasers, and magnets! 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡

Hot off the press! Light propagation through an atomic vapor in the presence of a magnetic field of arbitrary direction. opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.... Performed with colleagues at @durhamqlm.bsky.social @wrathmall.bsky.social Atoms, lasers, magnets! 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡

40(!) years since first visit to Blackwells in Oxford on family holiday. A bookshop the same size as our village was mind-blowing. Visited again last week. Amazing choice of text and popular science books. Still selling In Search of Schrödinger's Cat by John Gribbin that got me hooked on quantum.

The role of buffer gas in shaping the D1 line spectrum of potassium vapour doi.org/10.1088/1361... via @ioppublishing.bsky.social

Enjoyed participating at the Physics department's research Away Day at Ushaw college. I presented an overview of the @durhamqlm.bsky.social section's reaearch.

How would you respond if your lab got destroyed by a missile? "I wish that a day will come very, very soon in which Iranian scientists and Israeli scientists will collaborate and work together and perform scientific research for the future of mankind." apnews.com/article/isra...

It was a pleasure to organise the 2025 Rochester lecture, given by Nobel Laureate Prof. Anne L'Huillier. Seen here with members of the @durhamqlm.bsky.social research group, current and former heads of department.

As head of @durhamqlm.bsky.social it was my pleasure to introduce the 2025 Rochester lecture. Delivered by Prof. Anne L'Huillier. A brilliant and inspirational talk. Great to see so many undergraduate students present!

We are looking forward to host this Rochester lecture tomorrow. The speaker is Prof. Anne L'Huillier talking about the route to attosecond pulses.

New results! Visualizing strongly focused 3D light fields in an atomic vapor arxiv.org/abs/2506.01680 Performed with colleagues at @durhamqlm.bsky.social and @sonjafrankearnold.bsky.social Atoms, lasers, magnets and shaped light! 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡

Greatly enjoyed the @durhamqlm.bsky.social seminar by @jamiebgall.co.uk on Engagement and EDI.

Our @durhamqlm.bsky.social recent work on solving initial value problems using unsupervised machine learning is now available in Physical Review E... journals.aps.org/pre/abstract...

Hot off the press! Light propagation through an atomic vapor with non-orthogonal electric field modes arxiv.org/abs/2505.04504 Performed with colleagues at @durhamqlm.bsky.social 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡

It was a pleasure to toast the health of my friend, colleague and book co-author @etotheipiequals.bsky.social with special Ararat brandy Brough back from Armenia. Great that fellow travellers to Yerevan Mark and James could join us.

It was a pleasure to organise and chair a meeting to celebrate 30 years of experimental @durhamqlm.bsky.social & @etotheipiequals.bsky.social 60th. Here are the 4 speakers.

On Friday 2nd May we held an event to celebrate 30 years since forming the experimental side of the QLM research section and former head of section @etotheipiequals.bsky.social special birthday. Here current head of section @ifanghughes.bsky.social is seen congratulating him.

Mae’r 56 o Gymrodyr newydd a’r 4 Cymrawd Anrhydeddus sydd wedi cael eu cyhoeddi gan Gymdeithas Ddysgedig Cymru yn dangos sut mae gan Gymru atebion i lawer o’r cwestiynau mwyaf dybryd sy’n ein hwynebu heddiw. www.cymdeithasddysgedig.cymru/welcome-to-o...

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon

An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪

At some point we need to have a discussion about the ethics of participation in press releases as scientists. From today’s K2-18b saga, Nikku Madhusudhan in the press release says ‘The signal came through loud and clear’ (1/n)

Llongyfarchiadau!

Congratulations!

Most people have heard already but I was fortunate enough to win an EPSRC fellowship to bring trapped molecular physics to Oxford! www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-04...

Two of my @durhamqlm.bsky.social colleagues have been awarded prestigious quantum fellowships. Congratulations @lapgallagher.bsky.social and Tobias! More details here: www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/...

The head of Durham physics department, Professor Paula Chadwick, added “The partnership between Durham University and Boulby Underground Laboratory presents a tremendous opportunity to perform world-leading science, in addition to helping make the North East of England a quantum-ready region”. 6/6

Prof. Ifan Hughes, the head of the Quantum Light and Matter research group said “We are so excited about this project. Quantum mechanics experiments are fascinating when done in conventional laboratories, they promise to be even more so when performed in a working mine a kilometre underground!” 5/

Durham University physicists and the Boulby Underground Laboratory have initiated a collaborative effort to assess the feasibility of deploying the "QuASAR" experiment. 1/

Nobel laureate Bill Phillips on his life in quantum physics and why he is looking forward to quantum technologies of the future 🧪⚛️ ow.ly/yLaG50VuLpu

Partial solar eclipse in Durham so far. Hoping the clouds stay away! #eclipse #Durham

1/2 21 March 1768: mathematician and physicist Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier was born. "The profound study of nature is the most fruitful source of mathematical discoveries." — Joseph Fourier A biography➡️ mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/... 🧪 ⚛️ #mathematicians #histsci