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FLEET News

FLEET News in June 2024 includes FLEET landing event, stay in touch: Friends of FLEET, upcoming conferences and more. You can sign up for FLEET news here. Catch up on previous versions of the FLEET newsletter below. May 2024 includes FLEET landing event, the new legacy Centre website, dynamic surfaces at RMIT, internship report from ANSTO and quantum sensing funding. …

Ultra-high spectral purity revealed in exciton-polariton laser

Ground-breaking research revealed the ultra-narrow linewidth of a novel type of laser that operates without population inversion. Exciton-polariton lasers, renowned for their low-power operation, have long tantalised researchers with their promise for practical low-energy applications. However, until now, a clean measurement of the laser’s linewidth, or spectral purity, has remained elusive. “The spectral purity is one of the defining characteristics …

Dark excitons shed new light on matter

A team of Monash researchers have uncovered for the first time the full effects of interactions between exciton-polaritons and their associated dark excitonic reservoir. Exciton-polaritons (‘polaritons’, for short) are hybrid mixtures of light and matter that inherit the best properties of both. They form in semiconductors sandwiched between two mirrors, through which a laser is shone. “Polaritons capture useful properties …

FLEET Landing celebrates Centre achievements

Around 140 FLEET members, friends and partners gathered at Monash this week at the FLEET Headquarters to celebrate the Centre’s achievements. Funded in 2017, FLEET was officially launched at the same venue, Monash New Horizons Centre, on 12 June 2018. Guests include current members, alumni, collaborators and stakeholders, all of whom have contributed and supported FLEET in its seven-year journey. …

Sangeet Kumar inaugural FLEET intern

Sangeet Kumar was the inaugural intern for the FLEET internship program, working at ANSTO, performing neutron reflectrometry experiment to study ion-beam modified 2D materials. Sangeet reports back on whart he learned: “I recently finished my two-month FLEET ANSTO internship at Lucas Heights, NSW. I’m grateful for the financial support provided by FLEET as an additional stipend, and for ANSTO’s support …

The FLEET Branding Journey

We love the iconic FLEET logo, and so do our members, who have enjoyed wearing it on hoodies, T-shirts and face stickers, working it into scientific experiments, and outreach apparatus. What’s the secret of a great logo? For us, it was involving a large team, being clear about what we wanted to do, and why, and iterating back and forward …

Sue Coppersmith completes first leg of 2024 Women in Physics tour

FLEET AI Prof Sue Coppersmith (UNSW) kicked off her AIP Woman in Physics national tour this month in Victoria. Sue introduced over 250 students, teachers and public to the life of a theoretical physicist at five events around Melbourne. The busy three day schedule included: A public lecture at RMIT aimed at a physics-savvy public audience. Girls in Physics breakfast …

Surfaces on the move: dynamic liquefaction

The boundary between solid metal and liquid metal can be much less ‘solid’ than we ever suspected. RMIT researchers have discovered that the liquid-solid boundary can fluctuate back and forth, with metallic atoms near the surface breaking free from their crystal lattice. Observing a metal-alloy mass solidifying in a sea of liquid metal, the team was able to observe a …

When does a conductor not conduct? Switching a 2D metal-organic framework from an insulator to a metal

A switchable material based on electron-electron interactions. An Australian-led study has found unusual insulating behaviour in a new atomically-thin material – and the ability to switch it on and off. Materials that feature strong interactions between electrons can display unusual properties such as the ability to act as insulators even when they are expected to conduct electricity. These insulators, known …

Liquid-metal transfer from anode to cathode without short circuiting

University of Wollongong researchers achieved a significant milestone in novel soft-matter transport by demonstrating the transfer of liquid metal from an anode to a cathode without creating a short circuit, defying conventional expectations. The team led by Prof Xiaolin Wang unveils a method where liquid-metal (specifically gallium-based, room temperature liquid metal) anodes can flow towards cathodes with a small electrical …

Better Futures Industry Challenge 2024

Faster ways to respond to emergencies and ultra-sensitive quantum seismometers for earlier detection of earthquakes, were two ideas that emerged from teams of intrepid researchers from five Centres of Excellence who competed in the inaugural Better Futures Innovation Challenge to solve critical industry problems. Industry partners for the deep-tech hackathon had access to researcher skills spanning the fields of physics, …

FLEET alums and members value ‘soft’, transferable skills, and community

It is not just technical and scientific skills that set up FLEET graduates for future career success. Surveying alums and current members reveals the impact of technical and transferable skills gained in the Centre. FLEET is on a mission to develop the next generation of science leaders. In the nearly seven years since FLEET began we have trained over 100 …

Pioneering study achieves liquid-metal transfer via electrical current

first published at the University of Wollongong In a ground-breaking discovery, University of Wollongong (UOW) researchers, have reached a new milestone in soft-matter transport. The team, based at the UOW node of the ARC Center of Excellence in Future Low Energy Electronics Technology (FLEET), has successfully demonstrated the transfer of liquid metal from an anode to a cathode without short circuiting, defying …

Alumni interview: Bernard Field

Bernard Field was one of the earliest of FLEET PhD students, joining the Centre in 2018 originally as an Honours student, then a PhD student in 2019 under Agustin Schiffrin and Nikhil Medhekar. His PhD research focused on  correlated electrons in a frustrated 2D lattice, within FLEET’s theme 1. We interviewed Bernard about his career path after leaving FLEET (he …

Alumni interview: Dhaneesh Kumar

Dhaneesh Kumar was one of the original cohort of FLEET PhD students when the Centre was launched in 2017. We interviewed Dhaneesh about his career path after leaving FLEET (he completed his PhD in May 2021), and how he has used his technical and collaboration training at FLEET in his new position as a postdoc at the Max-Planck Institute for …