The QED group

The Quantum Electronic Devices group is part of the Condensed Matter department in UNSW's School of Physics in the heart of Sydney. Our research is focussed on studying the fundamental properties of low dimensional systems realised in advanced semiconductor devices, and developing new organic semiconductor and superconducting devices.

What's new

 

15-Apr-2009

Another paper on 1D holes, which neatly clears up some controversies in the field, has just been published in the New Journal of Physics: "The interplay between one-dimensional confinement and two-dimensional crystallographic anisotropy effects in ballistic hole quantum wires" by O Klochan, A P Micolich, L H Ho, A R Hamilton, K Muraki and Y Hirayama. Well done all.

2-Apr-2009

The QED group has an immediate opening for a Senior Research Associate to work on hole nanoelectronics - details are here (link now fixed).

 

11-Mar-2009

Our paper "The 0.7 anomaly in one-dimensional hole wires" has been selected by the Editorial Board of the Journal of Physics C as one of the top papers of 2008, based on the number of downloads. See the special edition here, which also gives free access to the paper throughout 2009.

5-Mar-2009

Adam Micolich has won the Edgeworth David Medal, a prestigious early career award made by the Royal Society of New South Wales. The medal is awarded annually to a scientist under the age of 35 for distinguished contributions to Australian science. Previous winners include palaeontologist and former Australian of the year, Tim Flannery, and the world-leading solar cell physicist, Martin Green. Full story here.

 

5-Dec-2008

The QED group is awarded new MREII funding to maintain and upgrade equipment in 2009.

 

25-Nov-2008

The QED group wins an ARC Linkage grant for new cryogenic equipment.

 

22-Oct-2008

Today's Australian Higher Ed has an article by Adam Micolich about the use of YouTube in physics teaching.

 

15-Oct-2008

The QED group wins a $350,000 ARC Discovery Grant to study spins in hole devices.

 

14-Oct-2008

Lasse Taskinen's paper on high speed, high sensitivity measurements of 2D hole systems has been accepted for publication in Review of Scientific Instruments: Radio-frequency reflectometry on large gated 2-dimensional systems.

23-Sept-2008

A really interesting opinion piece by Adam Micolich has just appeared on the Faculty of Science website: How I learned to stop worrying and love YouTube. The full article can also be downloaded from the preprint server: http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.3441

 

21-Sept-2008

Adam completed the Blackmore's Bridge run on the weekend, despite a sprained ankle and advice from his Physio. And managed to complete the 9km run in a shade over 50 min!

 

6-Sept-2008

New PhD projects (800kB PDF file) are available for making and studying semiconductor nanostructures to study spin-orbit coupling and spintronics applications in both electron and hole nanostructures.

 

11-July-2008

Welcome to new PhD student, Sebastian Fricke, who has joined the group from Germany.

 

4-July-2008

Ted Martin wins a prize for his poster presentation at the International Conference on Electronic Materials.

 

20-June-2008

Congratulations to Ted and Alex S. on getting their paper on spin-splitting in narrow bandgap quantum wires accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters:Enhanced Zeeman splitting in Ga0.25 In0.75 As quantum point contacts, T. P. Martin, A. Szorkovszky, A. P. Micolich, A. R. Hamilton, C. A. Marlow, H. Linke, and R. P. Taylor, and L. Samuelson. Preprint available here.

1-April-2008

The competition is really heating up: Now it's Lap-hang's turn, with a new paper accepted for physical Review B Rapid Communications:
Effect of screening long-range Coulomb interactions on the metallic behavior in two-dimensional hole systems by L.H. Ho, W.R. Clarke, A.P. Micolich, et al. Well done all!

 

28-Feb-2008

Not to be outdone, Ted Martin has just had his paper "Confinement properties of a Ga0.25In0.75As/InP quantum point contact," accepted for publicaton in Physical Review B. Nice work!

 

27-Feb-2008

Congrats to Sarah for her paper on "Single particle and momentum relaxation times in two-dimensional electron systems", which has appeared in Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6800, 68001L, (2008). This is the culmination of her Honours thesis, and quite an achievement (and a small step to Dr. X's sweet, sweet office).

 

25-Feb-2008

Adam, Lasse, Ted and Oleh are in Melbourne this week to attend the 2008 International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Ted is giving a talk on"Coupling of electron quantum interference effects in arrays of hard-walled semiconductor cavities" and Oleh is talking about "Hole transport in undoped one dimensional quantum wires". Lasse is presenting a poster on phonon coupling in metallic wires, and Adam is organising & chairing the Australian Research Council Nanotechnology Network ECR/Postgraduate Student Symposium (as well as chairing one of the Nanoelectronics symposia).

 

11-Jan-2008

Another Paper in Physical Review Letters! "0.7 Structure and Zero Bias Anomaly in Ballistic Hole Quantum Wires" by Romain Danneau, Oleh Klochan, Warrick Clarke, Lap-Hang Ho, Adam Micolich, Michelle Simmons, Alex Hamilton et al has just been published (Phys. Rev. Lett., 100, 016403 (2008)). Congratulations to everyone!

 

 

 

Older highlights

 

26-Sept-2007

The QED group has done really well in this year's ARC funding, winning a 3-year $380k Discovery grant on nanospintronics, a 3-year $80K Linkage International grant and a $440k Linkage Infrastructure grant to commence in 2008.

 

15-Sept-2007

The QED group gets another paper in a high impact journal! Warrick Clarke's paper Impact of long- and short-range disorder on the metallic behaviour of two-dimensional systems has been accepted for publication in Nature Physics. NP has an impact factor of 12, so that's pretty good. But then it's a pretty good paper - well done all.

 

10-Nov-2006

UNSW research developing quantum semiconductor devices that use holes instead of electrons has earned Associate Professor Alex Hamilton and the QED group the Australasian Science Prize for 2006. More details are on the faculty website, with a story on the group’s research published in the current issue of Australasian Science.

 

27-Oct-2006

Congratulations to Dr. Adam Micolich on scooping a prestigious Young Tall Poppy Science Award at NSW Parliament House for his work on fractal conductance fluctuations in quantum billiards and hybrid organic-inorganic superconductor materials. The Young Tall Poppy Program was established by the Australian Institute of Policy & Science to identify and acknowledge outstanding young Australian researchers. Rumour has it that Adam celebrated by buying a new bass guitar.

 

11-Oct-2006

Dr. Adam Micolich and A/Prof Alex Hamilton win the University’s largest Discovery Project Grant – $1.3 million – for research on the quantum properties of GaAs nanostructures. The award includes a five year ARC Professorial Fellowship for A/Professor Hamilton.

 

11-Oct-2006

Superconductivity in metal-mixed ion-implanted polymer films: Dr. Adam Micolich and colleagues at the University of Queensland report their discovery in Applied Physics Letters 89, 152503 (2006).

 

30 -Aug-2006

Another publication on our hole quantum wires appears in Applied Physics Letters 89, 092105 (2006), as part of a collaboration with NTT Basic Research laboratories in Japan. This time Oleh Klochan and Warrick Clarke report a new way of making ultra-stable hole quantum wires.

 

26-July-2006

PLENTY OF NOTHING: a hole new quantum spin is a media release for the popular press about our recent work.
"Electronic devices are always shrinking in size but it’s hard to imagine anything beating what researchers at the University of New South Wales have created (read more)". Photos are available of some of the group members and the devices, as well as a conceptual web animation of how the devices work.