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Physics and Astronomy

Valentin Hämmerli

Postgraduate Researcher
Physics and Astronomy

Research interests

  • Nanofabrication and integrated optics
  • Quantum optics
  • Nanophotonics
  • Single photon sources
  • Quantum emitters in 2D materials
  • Quantum information processing, communication and cryptography, computing
Background

I graduated from the University of Bath in 2018 with a master's degree in physics (incl. 12-month industrial placement). The placement in my third year was at a multinational design and consultancy firm, in the nuclear business unit. My role was safety and risk management and environmental assessment. The placement also included a joint project with students at the University of Bath performing computer simulation of radiation dose from nuclear waste sources and comparing to a simple model. The placement resulted in two publications and a joint prize for best poster presentation at the Society for Radiological Protection annual conference 2016.

My master's project involved the production of photon pairs in a non-linear crystal ($\beta$-Barium Borate) pumped by a 405 nm diode laser. Collection of entangled pairs from Type-II non-collinear spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) into fibre for detection. Entanglement testing with avalanche photodetectors and polarisation control. Innovative for the use of a very cheap continuous wave (CW) diode laser pump and otherwise common optics components, the main aim of the project was to demonstrate a cost-effective, efficient and achievable source of entanglement.

In September 2018 I joined the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Metamaterials (XM2) as a postgraduate researcher. My PhD project focuses on increasing the single photon rates of a solid-state source by integrating emitters with hybrid metal-dielectric resonators. My project is supervised by Dr Isaac Luxmoore and Professor Bill Barnes.


Courses and Languages
Training and courses
  • Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) in research
  • Creativity workshop
  • Cognitive Behavioural Coaching introduction session
  • Equality and diversity (online module)
  • Fabrication & characterisation of functional materials
  • Fire safety in research
  • Health and safety (online module)
  • Information security (online module)
  • information security on research data (online module)
  • Introduction to Statistics
  • LTHE stage 1 (compulsory if you wish to assist with teaching our students)
  • Magnetic metamaterials and devices
  • Quantum Optics and Photonics
  • Presentation Training
  • Programming/computational skills
  • Radiation protection in research
  • Research integrity (online module)
  • Risk assessment in research and fieldwork
  • Write About Science
  • Wave Theory
  • Acoustics
  • Literature Review training (in preparation of the science background report)
  • Plasmonics
  • Project Management workshop
  • Sensing & Security
  • SPIE OP19 (San Diego, CA) Student Leadership workshops: Chapter leadership, networking, giving effective presentations, writing effective research papers, creating effective graphs (With Jean-Luc Doumont)
  • SPIE OP19 (San Diego, CA) Student Leadership workshops: Effective outreach with Jess Wade
  • Research Data Management and Open Access
  • Computational Physics and Modelling PHYM004
  • VOX: In the Spotlight presentation training
  • Laser safety officer course - External (Aurora Health Physics)
  • Researcher Development Programme webinar: Project management during coronavirus
  • Researcher Development Programme webinar: Working from home: keeping productivity and staying well
Languages
  • English (native)
  • German (native)

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