College position(s)
Fellow
Subject
Natural Sciences (Physical and Biological)
Specialising in
Physics; Professorial Fellow
Professor Christopher Ford
Research themes
My research applies the techniques of the highly-successful semiconductor industry to make a micron-sized laboratory on a chip where the quantum physics of one or more electrons can be investigated in a wide variety of different types of patterned structure. I am interested in both fundamental physics and the possibilities of making devices that could be useful in the long term. We can use a pulse of sound waves to move an electron back and forth many times over quite long distances on the chip, in what we call “electron ping pong”. I am trying to apply this technique to help develop quantum computers, and to produce single photons of light. These experiments require extremely low temperatures, close to absolute zero. I have published papers in both of the top scientific journals, Science and Nature, in the last few years.
Responsibilities
I supervise second, third and fourth-year physics courses. In the Physics Department, I lecture fourth-year and MPhil courses involving combinations of the words quantum, nano, electronics and physics! I also supervise a number of PhD students.
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