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Mr Charlie-Ray Mann

Postgraduate Researcher (Metamaterials CDT 2015)

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See my latest work published in the leading journal Nature Photonics: `Tunable pseudo-magnetic fields for polaritons in strained metasurfaces'

I am a theoretical physics PhD student in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Metamaterials where I work with Dr Eros Mariani, Prof Bill Barnes, and Dr Simon Horsley.

Broadly speaking, I am interested in non-trivial phenomena that emerge in metasurfaces composed of lattices of interacting dipoles, such as quantum emitters or classical antennas. The collective dynamics of the dipoles result in hybridized polariton states whose properties depend qualitatively on the nature of the dipole-dipole interactions which are mediated by the electromagnetic environment. My research focuses on how one can modify these emergent phenonmena by manipulating the environment in which the dipole emitters/antennas are embedded.

For example, in recent work we have shown that one can manipulate type-I and type-II Dirac polaritons, tune the strength of synthetic magnetic fields, and induce topological phase transitions by embedding metasurfaces inside a cavity waveguide. 

In 2019, I was honoured to be selected by the Royal Society to represent the UK at the prestigious 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Physics.  Here, I got to meet and discuss physics with about 40 Nobel Prize winners such as Duncane Haldane, Wolfgang Ketterle, and Klaus von Klitzing.

In 2015, I graduated from the University of Exeter with a 1st class degree in Physics, during which I was honoured to recieve two scholarships and seven awards for academic excellence including the Bertie Black Prize for the most outstanding academic performance in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences (CEMPS).

Education

  • 2015-present: PhD in Theoretical Physics, University of Exeter.
  • 2012-2015: BSc (Hons) in Physics, 1st class, University of Exeter.
  • 2010-2012: A levels (Physics A*, Maths A*, Further Maths A*, Biology A*).

Awards, Honours & Scholarships

  • £5,000 award from the Rank Prize Funds to support research during COVID-19 pandemic (2020).
  • Selected UK representative for the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting (2019).
  • £100 Award for best student talk at Smart NanoMaterials, Paris, France (2018).
  • £3,000 research grant award for summer undergraduate project (2018).
  • £1,000 travel grant to visit the Free University of Berlin (2018).
  • £500 Most outstanding contributed talk at Rank Prize Symposium on Electromagnetic Metasurfaces, Grasmere, UK (2017).
  • £250 Bertie Black Prize for most outstanding academic performance in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences (2015).
  • Exeter University Dean's Commendation Award (2015).
  • Physics Award for best academic performance (2015).
  • Exeter University Dean's Commendation Award (2014).
  • Physics Award for best academic performance (2014).
  • Exeter University Dean's Commendation Award (2013).
  • Physics Award for best academic performance (2013).
  • £1,000 Eliahou Dangoor Scholarship for academic excellence (2012).
  • £1,000 Excellence at Exeter Scholarship (2012).

Conference presentations & invited talks

  • ICFO, Barcelona, Spain, August 2020 (invited)
  • OSA IONS conference, Exeter, UK, July 2019 (invited).
  • NanoMeta 7, Seefeld, Austria, January 2019.
  • Smart NanoMaterials, Paris, France, December 2018.
  • APS March Meeting, Los Angeles, USA, March 2018.
  • Rank Prize Symposium on Electromagnetic Metasurfaces, Grasmere, UK, March 2017 (invited).
  • New Horizons in Nanophotonics, Royal Society meeting, Chichley Hall, UK, May 2016.
  •  MAST STC Defence Materials Forum, Exeter, UK, May 2016.

Research visits

  • Free University of Berlin, Germany (2018).
  • University of Stassbourg, France (2018).
  • University of Gothenburg, Sweden (2017).

Collaborations

  • Thomas J. Sturges - University of Warsaw, Poland.
  • Guillaume Weick - University of Strasbourg, France.
  • Fabian Pauly - University of Konstanz, Germany / Okinawa Insitute of Science and Technology, Japan.
  • Simon Lamowski - University of Konstanz, Germany / Okinawa Insitute of Science and Technology, Japan.
  • Simon A. R. Horsley - University of Exeter.

Supervision & Teaching

  • 2017-2019: Masters project supervisor for four MPhys students. Project entitled "Dirac metamaterials: the quest for new quasiparticles".
  • 2018-present: Masters project supervisor for four MPhys students. Project entitled "Fictitious gauge fields for light".
  • 2018: Undergraduate summer research project supervisor. Project entitled "Dirac quasisparticles in bilayer metasurfaces"
  • 2016-present: Teaching assistant for Thermal Physics, Electromagnetism II, Condensed Matter Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Mathematics I, Mathematics II, and Mathematics with Physical Applications. 

Outreach

  • Leader of the "Metabuddies" program aimed at getting early career researchers into schools.