Facilities
IPaQS hosts a range of world-class facilities underpinning our experimental research in photonics and quantum technology. Our labs host a variety of lasers, including sources generating record-breaking high-energy few-femtosecond pulses of light in the vacuum and deep ultraviolet region.
Lasers are utilised to access new regimes in the investigation of electron dynamics in matter from the UV to the mid-infrared, but also to process novel materials and devices.
Our quantum technology labs include state-of-the-art equipment for quantum communication and sensing, including a ground optical station for satellite communication and a variety of high-performance single photon detectors.
Our research on quantum materials benefits from several state-of-the-art low-vibration cryostats with optical access, high-resolution spectrometers, and dedicated microwave equipment for spin qubit control. We have access to key nano-fabrication facilities, and to the world’s first commercial low-temperature scanning quantum sensor based on a single spin.
Nano-fabrication Cleanroom
The newly refurbished cleanroom at Heriot-Watt University is equipped with state-of-the-art nano-fabrication and characterization equipment and hosts the EPSRC Two-Dimensional Photonics Fabrication facility. Key resources include:
- Lithography: Optical (mask aligners), electron-beam, and direct laser writing.
- Deposition: E-beam evaporator, PECVD, magnetron sputtering, thermal evaporator.
- Characterization: SEM, advanced AFM, imaging ellipsometry, ZYGO interferometer, Dektak profilometer.
- Additional Tools: Dicing saw, semi-automatic flip-chip bonder, ICP/RIE plasma etcher.
- 2D Heterostructure device fabrication: An advanced, fully automated system for identifying and assembling 2D heterostructures in an inert environment.
The facility can be accessed by external academic and industrial entities.
Contact: Prof Brian Gerardot
Nanoscale Quantum Sensing
The facility, a £2.5M investment by EPSRC and Heriot-Watt University, hosts quantum sensors based on single electron spins, to characterise magnetic fields, electric fields, current at the nanoscale, down to milliKelvin temperatures. The facility includes a low-temperature (T=1.6K) scanning quantum magnetometer based on one single spin, offering ~40nm spatial resolution, and a widefield (diffraction limited) wide-field magnetometer operating in the mK regime.
The instruments are used for cutting-edge research on novel quantum materials, in particular on 2D heterostructures, and can be accessed by external users as part of scientific collaborations. More details at Quantum Photonics Laboratory.
Contact: Prof Cristian Bonato or Prof Brian Gerardot
Quantum Communication Optical Ground Station
Heriot-Watt University hosts the Quantum Communication Hub's Optical Ground Station (HOGS), a £2.5M investment in infrastructure to unlock research in satellite-based quantum communications in addition to optical communications, space-situational-awareness, and photonics for space. The facility features a 70cm primary aperture telescope, 40cm piggyback telescope, dome housing, and a range of advanced imaging and corrective optics for next generation research. HOGS is connected to wider university labs through a campus-based dark fibre network.
Contact: Prof Gerald Buller or Dr Ross Donaldson
Medical Device Manufacturing Centre (MDMC)
The MDMC laboratory at Heriot-Watt is an industry-focused facility to assist medical device developers and manufacturers that are seeking to translate medical device concepts to commercial products. The laboratory brings together a wide range of state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, including sub-micron 3D printing (Nanoscribe system), laser welding and cutting/marking systems, together with analysis equipment including a scanning electron microscope and a Sensofar optical surface profiler. The primary function of MDMC is to support medical device companies, however the equipment can also be used to support university research activity. More details at Medical Device Manufacturing Centre.
Contact: Prof Duncan Hand
Extreme Soliton Light-Source (XSOL)
The XSOL facility, hosted by the Laboratory of Ultrafast Physics and Optics (LUPO), is globally unique, as the world's brightest optical attosecond pulse source and the world's brightest few-femtosecond deep and vacuum ultraviolet light-source. Funded by the European Research Council (through Starting and Consolidator grants) and Royal Academy of Engineering (through a Chair in Emerging Technologies), it enables investigation of electron dynamics in matter at unprecedented fast timescales, along with driving strong-field and relativistic intensity physics with sub-cycle and far-ultraviolet light pulses for the first time. More details at Laboratory of Ultrafast Physics and Optics
Contact: Prof John Travers