Room Temperature, Earth's Field MASER
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: London Centre for Nanotechnology
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Christopher Kay (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Bogatko S
(2016)
Molecular Design of a Room-Temperature Maser
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Breeze J
(2017)
Room-temperature cavity quantum electrodynamics with strongly coupled Dicke states
in npj Quantum Information
Breeze JD
(2018)
Continuous-wave room-temperature diamond maser.
in Nature
Salvadori E
(2017)
Nanosecond time-resolved characterization of a pentacene-based room-temperature MASER.
in Scientific reports
| Description | MASERs were invented prior to LASERs but whereas their ubiquitous cousins are used everywhere from the barcode scanner in a shop to eye surgery, due to their complexity, MASERs have found only limited applications, most notably for deep space communication. Indeed, solid-state masers employing crystals such as ruby typically require large magnetic fields and cryogenic cooling (to about -269 °C) to operate. The system studied in this grant employs the properties of photo-excited molecules to achieve microwave amplification, ultimately converting visible photons into microwave photons. Notably, it operates at room temperature and with no need of bulky magnets. Initially, we employed extremely short laser pulses (of the order of a billionth of a second long) to understand how the visible photons are converted into microwave photons and amplified. The response of the system allowed a theoretical model to be built to explain its kinetic response (Salvadori et al. Sci Rep 2017). In turn, this understanding will help us optimise the output. This work led to a second paper in which we observed quantum oscillations in the same system (Breeze et al npj Quantum Information 2017). The experience gained during these 2 studies finally led to the development of a continuous-wave maser based on diamond (Breeeze et al Nature 2018, doi:10.1038/nature25970). |
| Exploitation Route | We expect that this fundamental research to be of interest to those concerned with materials photophysics, microwave engineering, magnetic spectroscopy and device development and quantum optics. The paper was published in Nature in 2018. We expect this will generate a wave on interest in our research. We have now got EPSRC funding to develop our prototype. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics |
| URL | https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25970 |
| Description | The knowledge obtained through the work performed during course of this grant together with that performed by the Lead organization (Imperial College London, grant code EP/K011987/1) paved the way for the realization of the world's first continuous-wave maser working at ambient temperatures. This goal was achieved during part of our follow on grant (EP/S000690/1). Please see this grant for further details. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Description | Room Temperature continuous wave inorganic MASER |
| Amount | £327,948 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S000690/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 07/2022 |
| Description | characterisation and optimization of terphenyl single cystals doped with pentacene |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | EPR studies of terphenyl single crystals doped with pentacene , and more recently studies of diamond for maser applications. |
| Collaborator Contribution | growing terphenyl single crystals doped with pentacene. |
| Impact | Collaboration is multi-disciplinary in that brings together physics, materials and chemistry. See other sections for outputs. |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | Amazing Masers Exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition (2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Over 7 days, we talked to hundreds of visitors including groups of school children, the general public and Fellows of the Royal Society. It is unclear what the impact is, but certainly thee was a lot of interest, and hopefully the visitors learnt something about microwave communications that underpin our society. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2017/summer-science-exhibition/exhibits/amazing... |