Dr Hannah Williams

Assistant Professor in Quantum Light and Matter

What do you do?

I grew up in Manchester before moving to London to study physics at Imperial College. During my undergraduate degree I became fascinated by atomic physics and decided to stay on for a PhD on cooling molecules to extremely low temperatures. I then moved to Paris as a postdoctoral researcher using cold atoms to simulate real-world systems. I started as an Assistant Professor at Durham in 2021 and have my own group working on creating a quantum simulation platform with ultracold molecules.

How are you involved in this area of science? 

Ultracold atoms or molecules offer us an incredible resource in terms of improving our understanding of the universe. We are able to reach temperatures which are a millionth or even a billionth of a degree above absolute zero! In this regime we can achieve incredible levels of control over the particles including trapping them in a precise location, measuring the energy difference between states highly accurately and also controlling which state the particle is in.

In my work I have both developed techniques to achieve these extreme temperatures and used the control on offer to study how atoms placed nearby interact with one another. With my new group we are combining these techniques to control molecules, which are more complicated and therefore offer different opportunities than atoms, and build an experiment to investigate molecular interactions in a way which mimics real-world materials and effects.

What do you love about this topic?

I am still amazed that in small rooms we can build experiments where we see individual atoms or molecules. The field is advancing quickly and the developments coming from these labs now were dreams ten years ago.

Working in experimental atomic physics is also incredibly diverse, we build a lot of our kit in house, so we learn electronics and design skills, we work with lasers and imaging devices requiring optics, we need to understand the internal structure of, and interactions between, molecules and atoms so we run calculations and simulations. This variety is my favourite thing about my job.

How does this work deliver real-world impact?

Ultracold molecules promise to unlock many of the mysteries of our universe. This ranges from being used as incredibly sensitive probes of effects which could help explain creation of matter, to investigating the chemical reactions which occur in space, to simulating models of particle, nuclear, condensed matter physics and beyond into chemistry and biology.