Valentin Hämmerli
Postgraduate Researcher
Physics and Astronomy
Research interests
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Nanofabrication and integrated optics
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Quantum optics
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Nanophotonics
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Single photon sources
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Quantum emitters in 2D materials
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Quantum information processing, communication and cryptography, computing
I graduated from the University of Bath in 2018 with a master's degree in physics (incl. 12-month industrial placement). The placement in my third year was at a multinational design and consultancy firm, in the nuclear business unit. My role was safety and risk management and environmental assessment. The placement also included a joint project with students at the University of Bath performing computer simulation of radiation dose from nuclear waste sources and comparing to a simple model. The placement resulted in two publications and a joint prize for best poster presentation at the Society for Radiological Protection annual conference 2016.
My master's project involved the production of photon pairs in a non-linear crystal ($\beta$-Barium Borate) pumped by a 405 nm diode laser. Collection of entangled pairs from Type-II non-collinear spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) into fibre for detection. Entanglement testing with avalanche photodetectors and polarisation control. Innovative for the use of a very cheap continuous wave (CW) diode laser pump and otherwise common optics components, the main aim of the project was to demonstrate a cost-effective, efficient and achievable source of entanglement.
In September 2018 I joined the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Metamaterials (XM2) as a postgraduate researcher. My PhD project focuses on increasing the single photon rates of a solid-state source by integrating emitters with hybrid metal-dielectric resonators. My project is supervised by Dr Isaac Luxmoore and Professor Bill Barnes.
Courses and Languages
Training and courses
- Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) in research
- Creativity workshop
- Cognitive Behavioural Coaching introduction session
- Equality and diversity (online module)
- Fabrication & characterisation of functional materials
- Fire safety in research
- Health and safety (online module)
- Information security (online module)
- information security on research data (online module)
- Introduction to Statistics
- LTHE stage 1 (compulsory if you wish to assist with teaching our students)
- Magnetic metamaterials and devices
- Quantum Optics and Photonics
- Presentation Training
- Programming/computational skills
- Radiation protection in research
- Research integrity (online module)
- Risk assessment in research and fieldwork
- Write About Science
- Wave Theory
- Acoustics
- Literature Review training (in preparation of the science background report)
- Plasmonics
- Project Management workshop
- Sensing & Security
- SPIE OP19 (San Diego, CA) Student Leadership workshops: Chapter leadership, networking, giving effective presentations, writing effective research papers, creating effective graphs (With Jean-Luc Doumont)
- SPIE OP19 (San Diego, CA) Student Leadership workshops: Effective outreach with Jess Wade
- Research Data Management and Open Access
- Computational Physics and Modelling PHYM004
- VOX: In the Spotlight presentation training
- Laser safety officer course - External (Aurora Health Physics)
- Researcher Development Programme webinar: Project management during coronavirus
- Researcher Development Programme webinar: Working from home: keeping productivity and staying well
- English (native)
- German (native)