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Together with sponsor Meta, Tyndall celebrates the winners and finalists of the 2021 Postgraduate Publication of the Year.
Despite the continuous pandemic challenges, our students once again showed outstanding discoveries and results as part of their PhD projects, some even opening major new possibilities in their field.
Dr Fatima Gunning, Head of Graduate Studies at Tyndall, praised the entries, saying: "Year on year our students really showcase their outstanding contributions to Tyndall’s Research Excellence through the Postgraduate Research Publication of Year competition. This time, we noticed new entries from students who started their research during pandemic and lockdowns, which were quite disruptive, but their perseverance, endurance and team support paid off with excellent results! Once again we saw early stage PhD students submitting their exceptional publications, so special awards as Rising Stars for 2nd and 3rd years were also included! Congratulations to all!"
Finalist
“Optical properties and symmetry optimization of spectrally (excitonically) uniform site-controlled GaAs pyramidal quantum dots”
1. What encouraged you to submit your application to the 2021 Postgraduate Research Publication of the Year?
I thought it could be a good opportunity to share our work with other people at Tyndall and open a way for future collaborations. On the other hand, competition is always fun!
2. What inspired you to choose the subject of your paper?
Our research is focused on quantum optics, quantum dot technology and its applications in optical quantum information processing. There are some specifications required to optimize the QD as an ideal source of single photon and entangled photon pairs. We knew what was missing and this inspired us to work on and get closer to the missing properties, like spectral uniformity of QDs and reducing fine structure splitting (FSS), which is detrimental to entanglement quality.
3. What’s your paper about and how did you prepare for it? What role did research excellence play in your approach?
Our paper is a systematic study of spectral uniformity of Site-Controlled Pyramidal Quantum Dots (QDs) and also different strategies to reduce the Fine Structure Splitting (FSS). Uniformity is fundamental to remote interference of individual QDs in Quantum repeaters and in terms of growth uniformity, which is important for future scale ups. FSS is detrimental to entanglement. Entanglement is the building block for almost every algorithm or communication protocol.
4. The selection for Research Publication of the Year is extremely competitive. What is your advice for those aspiring for nomination next year?
You should believe in the novelty and quality of your work. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will!. Be proud of your job and enter the competition.
5. What is the single most significant support Tyndall has been able to offer you in achieving your research goals? (Please provide any detail on additional supports that assisted? How has Tyndall enabled you to fulfil your potential in this regard?)
While this publication is in collaboration with Rinaldo Trotta group at Sapienza University of Rome (Resonant Excitation of QD), sample growth, post processing and optical characterization of this systematic study is done in Tyndall. This was not possible without our facilities and the dedication of the Tyndall community.
Iman Ranjbar Jahromi; Gediminas Juska, Simone Varo, Francesco Basso Basset, Francesco Salusti, Rinaldo Trotta, Agnieszka Gocalinska, Francesco Mattana, and Emanuele Pelucchi, “Optical properties and symmetry optimization of spectrally (excitonically) uniform site-controlled GaAs pyramidal quantum dots”, Applied Physics Letters 118, 073103 (2021).