We are currently advertising two 4-year PhD positions in our group. If you are interested in joining us, please look at our Openings page for more information. These positions will be open for applications until January 31st, 2023.
PhD Openings!
PR Applied: Characterizing and tailoring multimode SPDC
We are pleased to announce the publication of ‘Characterizing and Tailoring Spatial Correlations in Multimode Parametric Down-Conversion’ in Physical Review Applied. In this article, we have developed a detailed theoretical model for the quantum state of two photons entangled in their transverse position and momentum. Our model incorporates the systems used for generating entanglement and measuring it, both of which play a significant role in what the final two-photon entangled state looks like. We introduce and demonstrate a simple and efficient method to quickly characterise the two-photon joint-transverse-momentum amplitude (JTMA) using scanned phase-only holograms. We use knowledge of the JTMA to precisely tailor discrete, high-dimensional entangled states of light in the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) and Pixel bases. We expect our work to have wide-ranging applications in experiments on multi-mode SPDC, as well as for entanglement-based quantum technologies for communication, imaging, and computation.
And the 2022 Nobel Prize goes to…
We would like to congratulate Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger for winning the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics! The prize was awarded for “experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”—a very exciting development for our field!
A very special congratulations goes out to Professor Zeilinger, whom Mehul spent several years working with in Vienna, before moving to Edinburgh and starting the BBQ Lab. In recognition of the award, the Nature portfolio of journals has put together a beautiful collection of articles by the awardees and advances they have inspired. We are pretty chuffed to see four of our papers in there (two authored with Anton, and two from our group at Heriot-Watt)!
Vatshal wins (yet another) Prize!
… And the 2nd year Postgraduate Research Prize goes to… our own Vatshal Srivastav!
We are very happy to announce that the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences here at Heriot-Watt has recognised Vatshal’s hard work and outstanding achievements by awarding him this year’s 2nd year Postgraduate Research Prize.
This prize is awarded to PhD students who have completed approximately 2 years of study and have made excellent progress in their research. The judging criteria included: quality, originality, awareness of wider literature, and output in terms of publications and presentations.
You can check out some of this great output in Vatshal’s recent publication in PRL: “Genuine High-Dimensional Quantum Steering”, and in his upcoming Physical Review Applied: “Characterising and Tailoring Spatial Correlations in Multi-Mode Parametric Downconversion“.
Welcome Dylan!
Dylan is joining us after completing two successful undergraduate projects with the group. He completed his physics degree at Heriot-Watt and his final year dissertation foccussed on controlling quantum states in space and time in a multi-mode fibre. He has plenty of experience in the lab as well as with computational simulations!
We warmly welcome you to BBQLab!
BBQ Lab 