Parkinson's group uses ultrafast optical spectroscopy to study carrier dynamics in photonic materials with quantum device applications. Research directions: (1) Time-resolved photoluminescence — TRPL with single-photon counting to map exciton lifetimes, diffusion, and defect trapping in GaN, perovskite, and 2D semiconductor quantum wells; (2) Optical single-particle spectroscopy — isolating single nanowires or nanocrystals for defect-free measurements of intrinsic optical properties; (3) Photon-number statistics — Hanbury Brown–Twiss measurements of single-photon purity from quantum dots and localized excitons; (4) Semiconductor quantum sensing interfaces — studying how carrier dynamics affect the fidelity of semiconductor-based quantum sensors and emitters.

Pioneers living bioelectronics integrating semiconductor nanostructures with biological systems. Primary directions: (1) silicon nanowire / nanoporous silicon photoelectrochemical interfaces for optical neuromodulation with subcellular spatial resolution; (2) intracellular silicon nanowire probes for recording action potentials from individual organelles; (3) bioinspired flexible mesh electronics for in vivo neural and cardiac interfaces. QuBBE member. 2026 Marian and Stuart Rice Research Award.

Tilley directs the UNSW Electron Microscope Unit and runs a nanomaterials group whose distinctive capability is in-situ liquid-cell TEM: watching nanoparticle nucleation, growth and catalytic transformation in real time inside the microscope, in liquid, rather than inferring mechanism from before-and-after snapshots. The synthetic side produces magnetic and plasmonic nanoparticles used as biosensor labels and MRI contrast agents, largely in collaboration with Gooding and Reece. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — the group is a supplier and characteriser of the nanoparticle probes that in-cell quantum sensing depends on — including the magnetic-nanoparticle labels whose stray fields a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV sensor would actually detect — and the liquid-cell TEM capability is a rare way to validate what those particles are doing in situ. Borderline inclusion (materials characterisation rather than sensing), kept for the collaborative infrastructure it represents.

Zheng develops in-situ liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy to directly observe nanocrystal nucleation, growth, and chemical transformation in solution with nanometer spatial and sub-second temporal resolution, capturing dynamic processes invisible to static microscopy.