We will host the CMQM (Condensed Matter and Quantum Materials) meeting 2019 at the School of Physics and Astronomy, organized by the IOP. Through the CMQM conference we wish to provide a forum for the wider UK Condensed Matter Physics community to meet for discussions and to present their research across the specialised disciplines. The conference is supported by a wide range of relevant Institute of Physics groups and we envision it to be the first of an annual series, which we hope will rapidly become established as a platform for the community to come together in the spirit of the former CMMP meetings.

The meeting will take place 3-5 July 2019 in St Andrews, featuring plenary talks by Jacqueline Bloch, Andre Geim, Laura Heyderman, Steve Simon, and Julie Staunton, invited talks in specialized sessions and a poster session.

A new way to engineer 1D surface states through kinetic stabilization. Never heard of this? – Read our paper at http://goo.gl/d9VPBr.

The 2019 recruitment round for PhD positions has started!

PhD positions are available through a number of routes, including through the School of Physics and Astronomy and the International Max Planck Research School.
Our group works on development of cutting edge instrumentation for atomic scale studies of electronic structure, complex magnetic orders and unconventional superconductivity. The experiments are undertaken in ultra-low vibration labs.

We have recently launched a series of videos which explain our research. If you would like to learn more, please take a look at our YouTube channel. One of the videos is specifically about Scanning Tunneling Microscopy.

Our new center of designer quantum materials is featured on BBC today, see "Building the future one atom at a time" and in radio on “Good Morning Scotland”.

If you want to learn more about our research, you may want to take a look at our YouTube channel.

On Thursday, 8th of December, the Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, Shirley-Anne Somerville, and the Principal of the University of St Andrews, Professor Sally Mapstone, opened a new center for Designer Quantum Materials. At the core of this facility is a reactive-oxide molecular beam epitaxy system, funded by the Engineering and Physics Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, EP/M023958/1).

Dr Peter Wahl with Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science Shirley-Anne Somerville Principal Prof Sally Mapstone Dr Philip King and head of School Prof Graham Turnbull
The Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science Shirley-Anne Somerville today (8 December 2016) officially opened a state-of-the-art centre for Designer Quantum Materials at the University of St Andrews. The centre, the first of its kind in the UK, is aimed at the creation of new materials which do not exist in nature. Almost like building LEGO structures with single atom building blocks, the Designer Quantum Materials lab allows the composition of a material to be changed between each layer, effectively making entirely new “supermaterials” – combinations and structures which would be impossible to create by any other means. At the heart of the facility is a molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) system which can custom engineer materials which can be used in a host of applications from super-efficient energy distribution to high performance computing and sensing.

Press coverage:

• BBC
• The Scotsman
• The Courier
• The National
• coverage in STV (starting from 15min16sec, log-in required)
• Press release by the University
• News item School of Physics and Astronomy

Just coming back from our condensed matter retreat at the Burn, where we spend three days filled with talks and discussions.

We are participating in the DAAD RISE programme which offers undergraduate students from Germany an opportunity to go abroad to work on a small research project. Have a look at the web pages of DAAD for more information (in german).