Dr Lucy Downes

Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Quantum Light and Matter

What do you do?

Born and brought up in Darlington, County Durham, I have always been interested in science. I completed my undergraduate physics degree at Durham University in 2016, and stayed on to do a PhD in the Quantum Light and Matter Group. After graduating in 2020 I continued to work in the physics department as a researcher, working on developing quantum technologies and talking to industrial partners about how to turn our experiments into commercial products.

How are you involved in this area of science? 

During my PhD in the Quantum Light and Matter group I worked on developing an imaging system for terahertz (THz) radiation using laser-excited atoms. Terahertz radiation is a type of electromagnetic radiation that is invisible to the eye (like microwaves and radio waves) but really hard to detect. However it could be useful in many applications, particularly for imaging and scanning objects.

Building this experiment involved taking the atomic and laser physics knowledge within the group and turning it into a more applied system - instead of using light to study the properties of atoms, we are using the same techniques to produce a useful effect. Durham is now home to the world's fastest terahertz 'camera', capable of taking video at thousands of frames per second.

What do you love about this topic?

I really love the hands-on aspect of experimental physics, especially when it all works! Problem solving is at the heart of lab work and it's very satisfying to come up with innovative solutions to get something to do what you want.

It's also very interesting and exciting when you find something unexpected, perhaps something that you don't quite understand, because that forces you to really think about the system you're working with and sometimes rethink your old ideas.

How does this work deliver real-world impact?

Quantum sensors are already providing real-world solutions for sensing things such as magnetic and electric fields, for example to measure brain activity. Quantum technologies being developed at Durham can hopefully be turned into commercially available products in the same way, as they rely on a lot of the same underlying technology.

Specifically, high-speed terahertz imaging could be deployed to look for contaminants on food production lines, or to look for defects in structural materials such as those that make up wind turbines.