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Dr Stephen Hopkins, research physicist 

 

NB This page is presently under construction

1991 - 1995 Full time PhD student, experimental physics, Open University Laser Spectroscopy Group
1995 - 1997
1997 - 1999
1999 - 2001
Postdoctoral researcher
          "             "
University lecturer
Open University,
Oxford University,
Sussex University,
2001 - 2003 Postdoctoral researcher Oxford University
2006 - present Teaching fellow Manchester University

My current Manchester post involves developing and delivering teaching material for a new MSc in Photon Science. Modules I'm working on include Nonlinear Optics, Laser Laboratory and Holography.

My experimental research was in the field of laser cooling and trapping of atoms and Bose-Einstein condensation. Essentially I studied the quantum mechanical properties of atoms at a temperature just one millionth of a degree above absolute zero.
I acquired many technical skills in areas including
Optics
Lasers, from semiconductor diodes to powerful gas devices
Electronics
Computer control of apparatus
Computer programming
Mechanical engineering
Advanced physics theory and calculation
Er... and basic arithmetic too

All of which comes in handy when inventing hi-tech fountains!

 

Selected publications

1) ‘Parameters for polarisation gradients in three-dimensional standing waves’
S.A.Hopkins and A.V.Durrant,   Phys.Rev.A  56, 4012, (1997).

2) ‘Zeeman-coherence-induced transparency and gain without inversion in laser-cooled
rubidium’   A.V.Durrant, H.X.Chen, S.A.Hopkins and J.A.Vaccaro,
Opt. Comm. 151, 136, (1998).

3) ‘Observation of the scissors mode and evidence for superfluidity of a trapped Bose- Einstein  condensed gas’    O.M.Maragò, S.A.Hopkins, J.Arlt, E.Hodby, G.Hechenblaikner and C.J.Foot,  Phys.Rev.Lett. 84, 2056, (2000).

4) ‘Experimental observation of a superfluid gyroscope in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate’, E.Hodby, S.A.Hopkins, G. Hechenblaikner, N.LSmith and C.J.Foot, Phys.Rev.Lett. 91, 090403, (2003).

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