Shane O'Mahony

Together with sponsor Catalyst Analog Devices, Tyndall celebrates the winners and finalists of the 2019 Postgraduate Publication of the Year .

Dr. Fatima Gunning, Senior Staff Researcher & Acting Head of Graduate Studies at Tyndall, praised the entries, saying: "This was an exceptionally competitive year with outstanding articles and publications in a cross-section of high-impact journals showcasing Tyndall’s research breadth and excellence."

Mike Morrissey, Technology Manager, Analog Devices echoed this:

“The long-term and strategic partnership between Analog Devices and Tyndall provides continuity of innovative research capability as well as access to a diverse and world-class talent pipeline. We are delighted to sponsor the Postgraduate Publication of the Year as it exemplifies the excellent deep-tech research Tyndall is renowned for and is aligned with core technologies of mutual interest for communications, energy, agri-tech and advanced manufacturing”

To help inspire other postgraduate students, both in Tyndall and those around the globe, we decided to profile this generation's future research leaders.

Dr. Shane O'Mahony

Winner

What encouraged you to submit your application to Postgraduate Publication of the Year?
The paper was published in the foremost international journal of pure physics: Physical Review Letters. It required three years of concentrated effort and provided a quantitative answer to a long-standing issue in the field of ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy. I was very proud of the work and thought it stood a good chance of winning.
What inspired you to choose the subject of your paper?
My Ph.D. supervisor, Prof Stephen Fahy, introduced me to the problem. It was a problem that required understanding of multiple different areas of physics in order to solve it. I found it fascinating and I thought that I could get to the bottom of it.
What’s your paper about and how did you prepare for it? What role did research excellence play in your approach?
My paper addresses a long-standing controversy in the field of ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy. Namely, that symmetry-breaking coherent atomic motion is only weakly driven by absorption of optical pulses. We performed first-principle calculations, providing quantitative evidence that scattering of excited electrons by thermal vibrations is the main cause of this. We also provide a method for increasing the impact of optical excitation on these symmetry-breaking modes.
The selection for Postgraduate Publication of the Year is extremely competitive. What is your advice for those aspiring for nomination next year?
If you have published a piece of work that you are proud of, you should enter this competition. Somebody has to win.
What is the single most significant support Tyndall has been able to offer you in achieving your research goals?
The most important Tyndall support was access to the on-site high performance computing cluster. This resource was crucial to the success of the paper.

Research Publication Link

“Ultrafast Relaxation of Symmetry-Breaking Photo-induced Atomic Forces”, Shane M. O’Mahony, Felipe Murphy-Armando, Éamonn D. Murray, José D. Querales-Flores, Ivana Savić, and Stephen Fahy, Physical Review Letters 123, 087401 (2019)