Welcome to the Quantum Photonics Laboratory

We are looking for passionate new Postdocs, PhD and Master students to join the team (more info) !

Welcome to the website of the Quantum Photonics Lab at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (UK). We work at the interface of quantum optics, condensed-matter physics, electrical engineering and materials science to create novel quantum devices, with the dual goals to investigate fascinating fundamental physics and to develop applications to secure quantum networking and nanoscale quantum sensing.

Our research has four main themes:

Across these themes, we investigate a wide variety of solid-state quantum systems, including crystal defects in diamond and silicon carbide, III–V quantum dots, two-dimensional semiconductors/magnets, and rare-earth ions. The devices we develop integrate advanced photonics to control light–matter interactions, electronics to engineer the qubit environment, and in some cases, real-time optimisation powered by machine learning and Bayesian estimation.

These devices enable high-quality single photon sources, quantum memories and repeaters for quantum networking; nanoscale magnetic sensors to probe quantum materials; and tunable solid-state platforms for simulating condensed-matter systems such as the Hubbard model. Our experimental work is supported by custom-built instrumentation—from high-throughput optical microscopes to real-time microwave electronics—and high-performance computational tools for experiment control, data acquisition, and simulation.