DEG People
ACADEMIC STAFF
Prof Richard Jackman - Professor of Electronic Devices
Professor Jackman gained a BSc in Chemistry at the University of Southampton, before completing a PhD in Surface Science at the same institution in 1986. Richard was made the Royal Society Eliz. Challenor Research Fellow to study ‘processes at the semiconductor-vapour interface’ at the University of Oxford, from 1986 to 1989, during which period he also held a Junior Research Fellowship at Linacre College, Oxford. Following his appointment as a Lecturer within the Electronic and Electrical Engineering department at UCL in 1989, Richard established a research group exploring the use of diamond for electronic device fabrication, a topic new to UCL and one only just emerging worldwide. Richard became a Senior Lecturer in 1993, a Reader in Electronics in 1996 and took up a Personal Chair in Electronic Devices in 2008. Professor Jackman is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP), Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a Chartered Engineer. Richard chaired the British Vacuum Council (BVC, 2000-3), represented the UK on the Electronic Materials division of the international Union of Vacuum Science and Technology Associations (IUVSTA, 1995-2001), and represented the UK on the Council of IUVSTA (2001-4). Professor Jackman also served on the committee of the IOP’s Semiconductor Physics group (2007-10).
Richard has served on the Editorial Board of the international journals, Semiconductor Science and Technology, Applied Physics A and currently the Nature Group journal 'Scientific Reports', and edited special issues of the journals Thin Solid Films, Surface Science, Applied Surface Science, Physica Status Solidi A, as well as editing Proceedings of the Materials Research Society (Diamond Electronics I, 956 (2007), Diamond Electronics II, 1039 (2008)). Media work has included the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Materials World’ (2004) and ‘Diamond: The worlds most dazzling exhibition’ at the Natural History Museum, London (2006). Extensive international conference organisation includes The European Diamond Conference series (9th-19th, 1998-2008-), the Hasselt Diamond Workshop (IV-XIII, 1999-2008-) and the ‘New Diamond and Nano-Carbons’ series (NDNC, 2007,8). Richard has given more than 100 invited papers at international meetings.
To date, Professor Jackman has personally graduated 36 PhD students, and has a current group of ten PhD students, plus postdoctoral research fellow support. He has published a (co-edited) book, 6 book chapters, 7 patents, >200 journal papers and more than 250 conference papers.
Visit Richard's full profile | r.jackman@ucl.ac.uk
RESEARCH STAFF
Jure Aleksejev
With the experimental work concluded in April 2021, Jure was hired as a research assistant in the department of Medical Physics at UCL to assist with construction and commissioning of a laboratory-scale CT machine. In February 2023 Jure transferred to the London Centre for Nanotechnology.
Massimiliano Ramsay
Massimiliano (Max) went to the university of Bath, securing a Master's degree in Chemistry (project in synthesising iron spin-crossover compounds). As part of the degree he spent a year at Universität Regensburg (Germany), working on the high temperature synthesis of solid-state battery materials.
Max recently completed his PhD (EPSRC iCase award - BAES), looking at incorporating plasmonic nanoparticles into diamond to develop highly durable substrates for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensing. Talks on his work were given at conferences in Warwick (De Beers diamond conference 2022) and Lisbon (32nd conference on Diamond and Carbon Materials 2022).
Currently, Max is working on multiple aspects of the Boltsens project, carrying high temperature synthesis and analysis of solid-state reference electrode materials and contributing to Raman sensing projects. In addition, he is looking to make improvements on SERS substrates developed during his PhD studies and collaborating with other researchers to enlarge the research scope of the substrates in question.
Research interests:
- Durable surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates
- Application of plasmonic materials encapsulated in diamond
- Nanofabrication techniques
- Pollutant monitoring in aqueous environments
massimiliano.ramsay.17@ucl.ac.uk
PHD STUDENTS
Calum Henderson
Calum received a Masters in Chemical Physics from the University of Edinburgh in 2018. After a spell working in the radiation safety team at the ISIS neutron accelerator, he returned to academia to pursue a PhD with the Diamond Electronics Group in 2020, focusing on radiation-hard diamond transistors.
Calum’s research is funded on an EPSRC iCase award, in partnership with the UKAEA Robotic Applications for Challenging Environments (RACE) team at the Culham Fusion Science Centre. His project involves fabricating and testing novel diamond transistors, using both hydrogen-terminated substrates and laser-written graphitic wires within the bulk diamond. During this work, he has collaborated with researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of Cádiz.
Research interests:
- Radiation-hard electronics
- Novel transistor designs
- Graphite-diamond interfaces
- Laser-writing in diamond
Kieran Twaddle
Kieran was awarded an MEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh and Malaysia) in 2022. During which he completed an academic research placement specialising in acoustofluidics for the separation of marine microplastic particles, sparking his interest in microscopic research for environmental applications.
In October 2022 Kieran joined the Diamond Electronics Group funded by a EPSRC DTP-CASE studentship with sponsorship from Schlumberger Cambridge Research Centre. He is currently working on ‘Diamond devices for extreme environmental sensing’ using Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) as a method for chemical identification.
Research interests:
- Durable surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates
- Application of plasmonic materials encapsulated in diamond
- Nanofabrication techniques
- Pollutant monitoring in aqueous environments
Rebecca Watkins
Rebecca went to the University of Surrey and received a Master’s degree in Physics in 2019. Whilst there she completed a placement at the Culham Science Centre, UKAEA working on hydrogen retention in fusion relevant materials, which is important for determining hydrogen inventory in future nuclear fusion tokamaks.
Rebecca then joined the Diamond Electronics Group as a PhD student (EPSRC iCase award – BAE Systems) developing diamond power electronic devices and radiation detectors, completing her degree in 2024. Now a post-doctoral researcher in the group, Rebecca acts as project manager for both industrial- and government-funded projects which deliver innovative energy-efficient technologies for real-world applications. Her current research centres primarily on utilising boron-doped diamond and conductive laser-written channels for power electronics and sensors.
Research Interests:
- Power electronics
- Radiation detectors
- Extreme environment sensors
Jingfan Yang
Research interests:
- Nanotechnology
- Design and fabrication of novel transistors
- Semiconductive materials
Oyelusi Olaifa
Oyelusi received a BSc in Chemistry from Queen Mary University of London, before moving to Imperial College London where he was awarded his Master of Research (MRes) in Nanomaterials. His MRes research project involved developing, modifying, and optimising BiOBr photocatalysts to enhance their photocatalytic activity towards the removal of Nitrous Oxide (NOx) pollution.
Shortly after completing his master’s degree, Oyelusi joined the DEG to start his PhD. His research is focussed on the production of diamond embedded plasmonic nanostructures for enhanced light harvesting within silicon solar cells. This involves using plasmonic metal nanoparticles to enhance the efficiency of silicon solar cells, then coating them with protective layers of diamond to enhance their overall robustness and efficiency.
Research interests:
- Photocatalysis
- Nitrogen oxide reduction
- Diamond surface chemistry
- Diamond plasmonics
