Technique - (34) Automated data acquisition and fitting

Type: Computational

Description: Scripted instrument control, real-time data storage, and automated multi-parameter fitting pipelines.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics – QOLS / Light Community | Quantum Measurement Lab (Vanner) @ Imperial
Summary:

Vanner leads the Quantum Measurement Lab, combining experiment and theory. Key research areas: (1) Cavity quantum optomechanics — developed a theoretical framework capturing nonlinear radiation-pressure beyond the linearised approximation, showing deterministic mechanical Wigner-negativity generation; demonstrated mechanical position-squared measurements in Nature Comms (2016); thermal noise squeezing by 36 dB (Nat. Comms 2013); (2) Brillouin-Mandelstam scattering — demonstrated strong coupling to high-frequency phonons (Optica 2019); single-phonon addition/subtraction via Brillouin (PRL 2021); quantum state tomography with non-Gaussianity; (3) Hybrid quantum systems — 'displacemon' architecture (nanobeam magnetically coupled to superconducting qubit, PRX 2018) for testing objective collapse and dark matter; (4) Quantum gravity tests — proposals for testing the generalised uncertainty principle (GUP) using optomechanical protocols. UKRI QTFP fellowship.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics (Condensed Matter Physics Sub-department) | Quantum Devices and Biosystems Group @ Oxford
Summary:

Vedral leads the Quantum Devices and Biosystems group, working at the intersection of quantum information and biology. Research themes include: (1) quantum effects in living systems — studying entanglement and non-classicality in biological organisms such as tardigrades placed in quantum superposition inside superconducting qubits; (2) BMV-type experiments to test whether gravity is a quantum field by measuring gravity-mediated entanglement between two massive quantum superpositions; (3) theoretical frameworks for witnessing quantum effects in complex macroscopic systems. While primarily theoretical, the group actively collaborates with and directs experiments. Borderline: included as the group formally aims for experimental demonstrations of quantum effects in living systems.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Webster Astrophysics Group @ UMelb
Summary:

Webster works on the Epoch of Reionisation with the Murchison Widefield Array, where the science goal — detecting the redshifted 21-cm signal from the first stars — is a five-orders-of-magnitude foreground-subtraction and instrumental-calibration problem rather than an astrophysics problem. Her group's contributions are in foreground modelling, ionospheric and beam calibration, and the statistical detection of a signal buried far below the systematics floor; she also works on quasar accretion physics. 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 methodological parallel is exact: like a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble measurement, a 21-cm detection lives or dies on the control of correlated systematics rather than on raw sensitivity. Borderline inclusion under the astronomy criterion, kept because the array and its calibration are the central object of study.

Department(s)/lab(s): Institute of Physics (QUANTUM) | AG Windpassinger - Experimental Quantum Optics and Quantum Information @ JGU
Summary:

Windpassinger's group works on cold neutral atoms as both a platform for fundamental light-matter physics and a deployable sensing technology. The fundamental line uses dysprosium -- the most magnetic element -- to study light propagation in dense dipolar media, where interatomic spacings fall below the optical wavelength and light-induced plus magnetic dipole-dipole interactions produce cooperative effects (superradiance, subradiance); controlled transport in optical dipole traps and microfocusing let them tune from single-atom to collective behaviour. The applied line builds ultracold-atom quantum sensors that survive outside the lab: atom interferometers and BEC sources flown in the Bremen drop tower, on sounding rockets, and on the ISS, aimed at inertial sensing, gravimetry and tests of fundamental constants under microgravity. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), this is the complementary 'cold and fragile but absolutely calibrated' end of the sensing spectrum; the group's real distinguishing asset for a postdoc is the space/microgravity engineering pipeline, which is rare. The group states it is continuously looking for motivated researchers and lists open positions via the PI.