Valentin Hämmerli

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)