MEAD
£12.6 million programme to unlock the next generation of photonics and quantum technologies
09-Sept-2026
The Maser group at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is participating in the new £12.6 million EPSRC-funded UK research programme which aims to accelerate the development of next-generation photonic and quantum technology devices, using atomic-scale materials engineering to unlock new capabilities in communications, sensing and computing.
Read the full news here.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø and St Andrews to develop electrically driven Masers amplifiers using small organic molecules
51³Ô¹ÏÍø and St Andrews awarded joint £1.3 million to develop electrically-driven Maser amplifiers using small organic molecules
A joint team from 51³Ô¹ÏÍø and the University of St. Andrews have been awarded a joint £1.3 million by the EPSRC to develop electrically-driven quantum amplifiers based on organic light emitting dioides (OLED) and Maser technology. The 36-month project will see the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø team led by Professor Mark Oxborrow and Max Attwood and the St. Andrews team led by Professors Ifor Samuel and Graham Turnbull, build hybrid electrically-driven quantum amplifiers by combining the small organic molecule-based spin materials with the outstanding electrical and optical properties of organic light emitting dioides. This project aims to make the technology more accessible and practical to pave the way for its use in cutting edge metrology applications.
Read more about the project .
Dr Yongqiang Wen leads Team Great Britain to Gold at the International AI Winter Olympiad 2026
27-Feb-2026
Dr Yongqiang Wen, a researcher in 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Department of Materials, led Team Great Britain at the International AI Winter Olympiad (IAIO) 2026 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Under his guidance, team members Anango Prabhat and Xingzhi Lu earned gold medals for their overall performance in both scientific and practical rounds, with Anango finishing 1st and Xingzhi 7th overall. This placed Team Great Britain among the top-performing nations at the competition, alongside Team China.
Find the full media release
Maser in policy paper on Materials for Space Technology
1-Mar-2024
We wrote an article on the compelling use of maser amplifiers to hear the faintest signals from spacecraft light years away! The article is included in the report "Why Space? The Opportunity for Materials Science and Innovation" by UKRI and Catapult, an outline for the potential collaboration between the Space sector and Materials, addressed to policy makers.
Read the report (our report is on page 107).
Also, see here for the article on the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø website (many thanks to Ayesha and Kayleigh for drafting the article!)
Shoebox maser on the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø College website
19-Feb-2024
T
he pentacene shoebox maser has been featured in an article on the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø College website. You can read it here.
Many thanks to Kayleigh for drafting the article!
Shoebox maser is Featured Article on APL
24-Jan-2024
Our group has published a paper on successful miniaturisation of the room temperature pentacene maser to the size of a shoebox, and has been chosen by the editors of Applied Physics Letters as a Featured Article!
Read more about the work done in the article site here:
Covered are the methods of shrinking the maser down to fit within a portable 'lunchbox', which required utilising a very compact high power Nd:YAG pulsed green laser. We hope the work helps pave the way for other groups to start building their own masers for study and rapid improvements.
Video of the shoebox maser
For more about our work on the shoebox maser, check out the video on the left!
(also available in the Videos section)
Christmas Party!
Dec 2023
The Maser group went out for our Christmas dinner party at the Hereford Arms!
51³Ô¹ÏÍø Lates - Space
7-Dec-2023
We had a stall at the night time 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Lates, presenting the maser and a music communication-through-light game to go with the Research in Space theme!
Diamond maser at the Quantum Showcase!
2-Nov-2023
The maser group presented both the diamond maser and pentacene maser at the UK National Quantum Technologies Showcase! We presented our miniaturised maser-on-a-trolley with Element Six and really grabbed the crowd with our orange glowing diamond in a box. The pentacene maser was also presented in collaboration with 51³Ô¹ÏÍø QuEST.
Pentacene maser at the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø QuEST launch
4-July-2023
We were at the inaugural launch of the Quantum Engineering, Science and Technology (QuEST) centre at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø! We presented the pentacene maser to a huge mix of students, lecturers and policymakers.
Maser at the Great Exhibition Road Festival!
17-June-2023
We manned a stall at the Great Exhibition Road Festival with the pentacene maser and Ion Smash ball game! The festival had a huge turn out with over 50,000 people from the general public coming to the stalls. Our stall was done in collaboration with the Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (NAME) Programme.