Ifan Hughes

A 2 by 2 array of images. They depict the four Stokes parameters for potassium vapour as a function of frequency in the vicinity of the D1 resonance. For a natural abundance potassium vapour cell of length 25 mm containing 60 Torr of neon buffer gas. The applied magnetic field is 1160 G, with the vapour cell stem temperature, increasing from 75∘C to 135∘C , in 15∘C increments.

Theoretical ElecSus calculations of the on-resonance (i.e. = 0 GHz) normalised Stokes parameter magnitude for (a) S0, (b) S1, (c) S2 and (d) S3 for a vapour cell stem temperature range between 75–135∘C and magnetic fields, in Faraday geometry, of 750 G, 1000 G, and 1200 G for three neon buffer gas filling pressures of 0 Torr, 60 Torr, and 100 Torr .

Experimental and theoretical Stokes parameters of the potassium D1 line as a function of linear detuning in a 25 mm natural abundance potassium vapour cell with 60 Torr of neon buffer gas, when filled at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, subject to a magnetic field of (1160 ± 4) G. The solid lines represent the experimental data, while the dashed lines represent the ElecSus theoretical fit to the data. The Stokes parameters shown are (a) S0, (b) S1, (c) S2 and (d) S3 for five vapour cell stem temperatures of 93 ∘C, 103 ∘C, 110 ∘C, 118 ∘C, and 129 ∘C . The vapour cell body temperature was maintained at 20 ∘C above the stem temperature. The residuals, shown below each main subplot, for = 93 ∘C are shown as a demonstration of excellent agreement between experimental data and the ElecSus model.

Hot off the press!
Experimental and theoretical characterisation of Stokes polarimetry of the K D1 line with neon buffer gas broadening
doi.org/10.1088/1361...
via @ioppublishing.bsky.social
Performed with colleagues at
@durhamqlm.bsky.social
Atoms, lasers, and magnets!
🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡

I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.

RIP. Some of his science-inspired works were brilliant.

The students have access (supervised) to boiling water. Dry ice.

Including the 23.2?

Ignoring the 23.2?

A photograph showing four digital thermometers. They are reading 21.8, 21.6, 21.4, and 23.2. All in degrees C.

So. What is the lab temperature?

🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢

An image showing photos of a PhD project "Visualizing strongly-focused 3D light fields in an atomic vapour".

A list of seventeen PhD projects.

It is the @durhamqlm.bsky.social Postgraduate Open day. I was advertising my project. One of the seventeen projects available.

That is very sad to hear.

I'm looking for a PhD student.

To work on a project to Visualize strongly focused 3D light fields in an atomic vapor.

A man in a purple tshirt stands in front of a out lamp and an orange lamp. They are on a table in front of a train.

An orange lamp glows within a clear plastic enclosure

@durhamqlm.bsky.social members all ready to Celebrate Science this week at @locomotionshd.bsky.social ! Come and see how we use light to identify atoms and make your own colour-changing picture using nothing but sellotape 💡🌈

PhD applications are open! We'd love to have you visit Durham Physics to find out more about the(currently!) 17 available projects we have for October 2026 start.

Our open day is November 26th, we hope to see you there!

Find project descriptions and open day sign up links below.

A collaboration from @sonjafrankearnold.bsky.social and @durhamqlm.bsky.social

Liam stands in front of his title slide "Rydberg excitons: beyond cuprous oxide" in a seminar room

Liam stands in front of an introductory slide describing his journey from undergraduate to fellow

Liams slide describing the self-Kerr effect

Homegrown fellow @lapgallagher.bsky.social describes his fellowship plans to investigate rydberg excitons in zinc diphosphide.

A seminar room filled with older and newer members of our parish seated to listen to the whirlwind talks group meeting.

A photo from behind of a full seminar room of QLM members listening to the whirlwind talks group meeting.

A speaker standing next to their slide introducing one of many physics labs in Durham QLM while the rest of the section listens.

QLM certainly looks a lot bigger than it did a few years ago...

A whirlwind introduction to all of the wonderful physics happening in QLM at our largest group meeting yet for our new members of the parish, and a refresher for some of our older members.

A photo of the QLM group stood outside the main physics building on campus, featuring staff and PhD students.

Durham QLM logo, an interpretation of an atom interacting with light.

QLM is hiring! We're looking for a new Assistant Professor in QLM. This position is a theory position. Please find the job description below in this thread.

For any academia-related queries, please contact Ifan Hughes (i.g.hughes@durham.ac.uk). We look forward to receiving your application!

Title slide for a presentation entitled "Quantum computing: has the future arrived?".

Conclusion slide for a presentation with three points: 1. Quantum mechanics is spooky! QM predictions are often counterintuitive. 2. We can exploit the weirdness. Commercial devices not just thought experiments. 3. There is more to come! Quantum computers, quantum simulators, ...

Greatly enjoyed giving a presentation about quantum computers to the IOPWales Physics Teachers Conference 2025.

The cover of the jubilee newsletter for the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology.

Prof Soannowsky introducing the event. 25 years of Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology.

A slide with many photos of current and past members of Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology.

Spending today with my particle physics colleagues celebrating 25 years of the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology here in Durham.

Polarization profiles and their simulated 3D structures at the focus. (a) shows examples of the investigated polarization structures, color coded in purple for radial and yellow for azimuthal polarization components. From top to bottom: radial Oe , azimuthal Oe [Eq. (2)], vortices with twofold symmetry Oe2 [Eq. (3)] and vortices with sixfold symmetry Oe6 [Eq. (4)]. (b) shows the simulated 3D light configurations for Oe2 at the focus of a lens with NA 0.4. These are displayed in different polarization bases: Cartesian components (top row); circular and axial components corresponding to atomic  and  transitions (middle row); and radial, azimuthal, and axial polarization (bottom row), highlighting the conversion of some of the radial input polarization into axial polarization.

Evidence of a varying longitudinal polarization component as function of the “radiality” of the light beam. Absorption spectra in a range of 100 GHz of the D2 transition for Rb for input beams shown in (a) with various polarization profiles from azimuthal (yellow) to radial (dark red). The spectra in (b) for Rb heated to approximately 80Cfeature  as well as  transitions. The  transition absorption is smallest for azimuthally polarized light beams and becomes largest for radial polarization. (c) shows the depth of the leftmost  transition peak on the right block as a function of the beams “radiality” from the equivalent dataset taken at125C.

Visualizing the axial component of various strongly focused (NAD0.4) vector light beams via atomic optical densities at the  transition, illustrated for azimuthal and radial polarizations as well as higher-order vortices with twofold and sixfold symmetries. (a) shows the theoretical polarization profiles and axial intensity distributions at the focus for these four beams. (b) shows the corresponding experimental polarization patterns as well as the optical density of the atomic vapor at one of the  transitions. The data for the spatial polarization tomography and optical density patterns were taken in the far field of the lens configuration.

Hot off the press! Our @durhamqlm.bsky.social results in collaboration with group of @sonjafrankearnold.bsky.social in Glasgow have just been published.
opg.optica.org/directpdfacc...

Atoms, Iasers, big magnets and structured light. What's not to like?

A photograph of Professor Kevin Weatherill giving his invited talk. He is stood in front of two screens showing images of relevant THz research.

PhD student Maddie in front of her prize-winning poster.

Tom's prize-winning poster.

A strong QLM presence at the recent @instituteofphysics.bsky.social QuAMP 2025 conference in Newcastle. In addition to many contributed talks, @kjweatherill.bsky.social gave an Invited talk "radiofrequency and terahertz sensing and imaging using Rydberg atoms". Both Maddie & Tom won Poster Prizes.

Members of the Quantum Light and Matter reserarch group and families at the summer party.

Captain Pizzey setting the field before she can pitch.

Serious levels of concenteation during the rounders.

He's off! Dr Rutley running towards first base, resplendent in his summer hat.

Summer lasted just long enough to squeeze in the @durhamqlm.bsky.social Summer Party. With the traditional non-competitive rounders.

Am image in a two by two array. In each panel there is a Planck black body spectrum for a given temperature, the response of the SML cones in the eye, and the calculated perceived colour. The temperatures are 3000K, 4OOOK, 5800K and 10000K.

An image showing 5 different stats from a surface temperature of 3000K to 25000K, with the colour evolving from red (Antares), orange (Aldebaran), yellow-white (Sun),blue-white (Sirius) to Blue (Alnilam).

A certificate from Eisteddfod Wrecsam 2025. Naming the winner of the composing a scientific article competition as Ifan Hughes.

Falch iawn rhanu mai fi oedd yn fuddugol yn yr Erthygl Wyddonol Gymraeg yn Eisteddfod Wrecsam 2025. Y pwnc oedd:
"Pam nad oes sêr gwyrdd?". Gallwch ddarllen yr erthygl yn y cyfansoddiadau.

William Phillips: why quantum physics is so ‘deliciously weird’ – Physics World The Nobel-prize-winning physicist William Phillips talks to Margaret Harris about his life and career

For the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology, we chatted with quantum pioneer + Nobel laureate Bill Phillips on the proudest moments in his career, the need for an "immortal qubit" and just why it is that the quantum world is so "deliciously weird." ⚛️🧪 physicsworld.com/a/william-ph...

Finchale priory

Finchale priory and river Wear

Finchale priory

Durham cathedral in distance on path along river Wear

9 mile walk to start my 27th year in Durham. Via Cathedral to Finchale priory.

A claim that should be treated Caerphilly.

A photograph of the Sloane Physics Laboratory in the foreground and Kline Tower in the background.

A photograph of Yale Science building and Kline tower.

A photograph of a tired postdoc leaning against a wall in the corridor of Yale Physics department. There is evidence of experimental apparatus having been packed.

Photograph of the cover of the Professor Pathfinder's map of Yale University & New Haven.

It is 30 years (!) since my postdoc period at Yale started. I joined Ed Hinds' group, learned about cold atoms and how to make them bounce from magnetic mirrors, mastered an experiment, packed it up and shipped it to Sussex. Such a key chapter in my life and career.

Clawr y gyfrol Mae gan Mererid Hopwood.

Cefn y gyfrol. "a dysgais hyn: mae'r golau'n torri'n rhydd, dim ond dros dro y collwn ninnau'r dydd".

Ail gyfrol o gerddi y Prifardd Mererid. Dylanwad cyfnod clo yn drwm ar llawer o'r cerddi. Pwyslais mawr ar obaith a galw am newid y drefn.
#DarllenGwyliau

Can you explain a quantum concept in 3 min? Enter @instituteofphysics.bsky.social's #QuantumOnTheClock competition. A video competition for UK & Irish students in their final 2 yrs pre-university.
🏆 £2k prizes
🗓️ Open Now–Deadline 4 Oct 2025 ➡️iop.org/quantum-clock

Bade Bach gan Ruth Jên Evans oedd uchafbwynt y Lle Celf yn y steddfod i fi.

Bade Bach gan Ruth Jên Evans oedd uchafbwynt y Lle Celf yn y steddfod i fi.

Bade Bach gan Ruth Jên Evans oedd uchafbwynt y Lle Celf yn y steddfod i fi.

Bade Bach gan Ruth Jên Evans oedd uchafbwynt y Lle Celf yn y steddfod i fi.

Clawr y llyfr Nelan a Bo. Awdur Angharad Price. Cyhoeddwyd gan Y Lolfa.

Nofel afaelgar. Cymeriadu cryf. Darllen difyr. Dechre da i'r gwylie!
#DarllenGwyliau