Spin Polarised Non-equilibrium Superconductivity (Dr G Burnell and Prof BJ Hickey)

Superconducting systems offer one of the few ways of studying quantum coherence on a macroscopuc scale and have therefore been a rich playground for experimental condensed matter physics. Despite the fact that BCS theory is highly succesful at describing low temperature superconductivity, the properties of superconducting systems driven out of equilibrium are less well understood. It is possible to create a non-equilbirum states in three ways: changing the populatiuon of excitations from the ground state (quasiparticles), creatinga charge inbalance (having more quasielectrons than quasiholes), and creating a spin imbalance (by having more spin-up quasiparticles than spin-down).  The focus of this PhD project will be on studying the lifetimes and characteristic length scales of these different cases of non-equilibrium quasipartucle populations by creating nanoscale devices incorporating superconducting, ferromagnetic and normal metal electrodes. We will fabricate the devices using a new shadow metal evaporation system that we are currently commisioning in combination with state-of-the-art high resolution electron beam lithography on £2.3M JEOL 6300 Tool to be opened in the University in lat 2011.

As a PhD student in our group you will benefit from being part of a large team with many international collaborations working on spintronics, quantum entanglement , superconductivity and nanoscale magnetism.  You will be trained in state of the art techniques such as growth of nanoscale materials, fabrication, low temperature and high magnetic field transport measurements.  We are a well equipped lab but our students also spend time in other labs as well.