Join QLM

Current PhD students in the QLM group

When you join Durham Quantum Light and Matter (QLM) as a PhD or Master by research student, you’ll become a member of a friendly research section home to almost 50 members, including permanent staff, research fellows, research associates and PhD students.

Each graduate cohort receives training in skills required to excel in the program. This includes lecture courses in atom-light interactions and advanced data analysis, and experimental skills workshops on CAD design and optics. Students and postdoctoral researchers are all given a desk in the shared office enabling easy sharing of ideas and problem solving.

Each week begins with our group meeting, when each team member is given the opportunity to share updates from their project. During term time we host weekly seminars from external speakers. These is also the opportunity to travel and attend international conferences and meet researchers from around the world. These are just some of the opportunities and benefits available to members of the group.

We have a selection of PhD projects available for an October 2025 start (listed below). In addition we support the application to scholarships. Futher information regarding the application process can be found here.

Available Projects

Dual-species tweezer arrays for next-generation quantum devices

Quantum spin dynamics with ultracold polar molecules

Enhancing molecular control using Rydberg atoms

Tweezers generation II

Leveraging Yb clock states to form CsYb molecules in optical lattices

We hope that you will join us and become a part of the QLM!

DualQD: Dual-species tweezer arrays for next-generation quantum devices In this project, you’ll develop a unique optical tweezer platform to assemble designer quantum systems atom by atom. Using lasers and magnetic fields, you’ll cool atoms to near absolute zero, trap them individually, and prepare them in precise quantum states. Our approach will leverage two distinct atomic species with unique optical transitions, allowing independent control. One species serves as data qubits, while the other acts as ancillas—supporting qubits that can monitor and control the system, that are essential for error correction and novel quantum sensing schemes. This dual-species approach is combined with a flexible trapping architecture, combining individually controlled atoms with mesoscopic ensembles—collections of many atoms confined within a single trap. By harnessing collective quantum effects, these ensembles enable improved detection methods and novel quantum cooling techniques. You will explore techniques to generate useful entanglement in this system investigating both short-range collisional interactions and long-range dipolar interactions mediated by Rydberg states—where atoms have electrons excited to giant orbits, resulting in strong interactions. Ultimately, this project aims to construct precisely engineered quantum systems atom by atom, to realise new quantum devices with applications in quantum computing, quantum sensing, and fundamental physics. This 4-year project is funded by The Royal Society. Candidates will gain hands-on experience in optical trapping, laser cooling, and quantum state engineering, while engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations that bridge fundamental quantum science with industrial applications. They will have the opportunity to engage with the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo as part of our UK-Canada quantum research collaboration. For further details about the position please contact Dr. Alex Guttridge. Back to table
Quantum spin dynamics with ultracold polar molecules Understanding quantum systems of many interacting particles is one of the greatest challenges in modern physics. In this project, you will study an artificial quantum system constructed by loading ultracold RbCs molecules into an optical lattice. Dipolar interactions can be precisely engineered between the molecules generating quantum entanglement and coherent many-body states, and the resulting dynamics observed using a quantum gas microscope that enables the detection of the position and state of individual molecules in the array. As part of our team, you will join our established RbCs quantum gas microscope experiment. This project will extend our current capabilities by implementing a rotationally-magic trap for the molecules that enables highly coherent spins to be encoded into the rotational states of the molecules. You will study of a range of tunable spin models in experiments, and have opportunities to collaborate with world-renowned local and international theory partners. For further details about the RbCs quantum gas microscope experiment click here, or for further information contact Prof. Simon Cornish or Dr. Philip Gregory. Back to table
Enhancing molecular control using Rydberg atoms We have pioneered a new approach to forming ultracold RbCs molecules. We take single atoms of Rb and Cs confined in separate optical tweezers, cool them to motional ground state of their respective traps and then carefully combine them to form a molecule in the rovibrational ground state. In this project you will construct an array of strongly interacting ultracold molecules and Rydberg atoms confined in optical tweezers. You will learn how to engineer resonant dipole-dipole interactions between individual atoms and molecules by tuning the energy difference between a pair of Rydberg levels to match the spacing of a rotational transition in the molecule. You will then harness this interaction to address two of the key challenges in the field of ultracold molecules: (1) to perform non-destructive detection and state sensitive readout of the molecule, and (2) to realise fast high-fidelity entangling operations between molecules. This project is supported by a new UKRI research grant. For further details about the existing tweezer apparatus click here. For further information about the project contact Prof. Simon Cornish or Dr. Alex Guttridge. Back to table
Tweezers generation II Single atom trapping and control with optical tweezers has become a major research theme throughout the world and many quantum startup companies are using this approach to develop platforms for quantum computation. In Durham we have an experiment that can trap single atoms of Rb and Cs in separate species-specific optical tweezers and then carefully combine them to form a molecule. The original apparatus is capable of forming up to 5 molecules in a linear array. In this project you will contribute to the construction of a second-generation apparatus aiming to produce interleaved 2D arrays of over 500 Rb and Cs atoms. The use of two atomic species, rather than the single species employed in most experiments, enables independent control and crosstalk-free measurement of the two species, facilitating the mid-circuit qubit operations needed for quantum error correction. Additionally, the setup can also be used to create arrays of RbCs molecules. You will explore combining the tweezer array with optical lattices, firstly to enhance the efficiency of producing molecules and secondly to transfer the atoms or molecules into a the lattice to study tunnelling and many-body dynamics for these different systems. This 4-year project is partly funded by Pasqal a world-leading neutral-atom quantum computing company based in France. As part of this project you will have the opportunity to spend time in their Paris labs. For further details about the existing tweezer apparatus click here. For further information about the project contact Prof. Simon Cornish or Dr. Hannah Williams. Back to table
Leveraging Yb clock states to form CsYb molecules in optical lattices Ultracold polar molecules offer a wide range of exciting research directions spanning ultracold chemistry, precision measurement, quantum simulation and quantum computation. Numerous applications stem from the long-range dipolar interactions and rich internal structure of vibration and rotation. Enormous progress has been made in assembling pairs of alkali atoms to form bialkali molecules – including by our group in Durham using Rb and Cs. However, there is a need to diversify the range of molecules available. In this project you will use an existing state-of-the-art experiment to form CsYb molecules. By combining an alkali atom (Cs) with closed-shell atom (Yb) you will form a molecule that has both an electric dipole moment and a magnetic dipole moment. Your strategy will be to the metastable clock states in Yb where our theoretical work predicts relatively broad collision resonances with Cs that can be used to form molecules. You will also use a magic wavelength optical lattice and learn how to prepare Cs-Yb atom pairs in this lattice. Converting the atom pairs into molecules will realise a new and exciting platform for quantum simulation of many-body physics. For further details about the existing Cs-Yb project click here. For further information about the project contact Prof. Simon Cornish or Prof. Jeremy Hutson. Back to table