Academic Staff
Prof. Ulf Leonhardt
I am working on the theory related to our experiment. Black holes are like space-time rivers: their curved geometry can be viewed as if space where a moving medium rushing towards the singularities of the holes. Horizons are formed where the flow speed of the space-time river exceeds the speed of light such that nothing can escape anymore. We plan to create a similar situation for light in the laboratory where we will be capable of probing the quantum effects of horizons, in particular the generation of pairs of photons from their virtual existence as the quantum vacuum. Such virtual photons are separated at the horizons and hence forced to materialize in a radiative process first predicted by Stephen Hawking.
I am also interested in the physics of illusions, in particular in the optics of invisibility devices. The idea of invisibility has fascinated people for millennia and has been an inspiration or ingredient of myths, novels and films, from the Greek legend of Perseus versus Medusa to H.G. Well's Invisible Man and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. I am working on ideas of designing invisibility devices based on modern metamaterials, inspired by Fermat's principle, conformal mapping, analogies between mechanics and optics, the optics of illusions, Arabia (and the imagination of my children).
Dr. Donatella Cassettari
Dr Friedrich König
Dr Natalia Korolkova
Natalia Korolkova has received her PhD in theoretical quantum optics in 1996 from Moscow State University. 1996/1997 she was appointed as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Optics, Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, in the field of quantum statistics of light fields, non-classical light and quantum cryptography. In 1997 she joined the Quantum Metrology group at Erlangen University, Germany, as a Humboldt Fellow with topics quantum multimode correlations of bright optical beams and quantum optics with fiber solitons. During 1999-2003 she was leading the Quantum Information group at the Center of Modern Optics at the University of Erlangen, Germany.
Since September 2003 Natalia Korolkova is with the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Her current research interests are in the field of quantum optics of ultrashort light pulses, quantum information using continuous variables of light and its applications in experimental quantum communication.
Research Groups
Theoretical Quantum Optics (Prof. Ulf Leonhardt)
Dr Thomas Philbin
Scott Robertson
Theoretical Quantum Information (Dr Natalia Korolkova)
Darran Milne
Richard Tatham
Dr Ladislav Mišta
Works also at the Department of Optics, Palanky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Tomáš Tyc
Works also at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Experimental Quantum Optics (Dr Friedrich König)
Steve Hill
Steve has a degree in Theoretical Physics from St Andrews, but then converted and started a PhD in the experimental optics group in 2005, working for Dr. König. His work involves the control of ultrashort laser pulses, and the effects of sending them through extremely nonlinear optical fibre.
Former Members
David Menzies
Gary Sinclair
Dr Chris Kuklewicz
Dr Luciana C. Dávila Romero
Conor Farrel
Conor Farrell, a postgraduate student in the quantum optics group, concentrates mainly on numerical simulations of quantum optical and condensed matter systems. In the past he has simulated Bose-Einstein condensate-based sonic black hole analogues, using the Perfectly Matched Layer boundary condition to simulate a free space domain. Currently, he is investigating the optical analogue of the Iordanskii force, which should produce interesting dynamics when a BEC vortex is illuminated with slow light.
All text and images copyright of the University of St Andrews unless otherwise indicated. Design by G. Sinclair 2006.
Validate this page's xhtml