Professor Arzhang Ardavan

Background

After completing his BA in Physics (1994) and D.Phil in experimental condensed matter physics (1998) at Corpus Christi, Arzhang Ardavan spent three years as a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College. Between 2003 and 2012 he held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Since 2001 he has held a Tutorial Fellowship at Magdalen College, and since 2015 a Professorship in Physics.

Teaching

First year: mathematical methods
Second year: mathematical methods and quantum mechanics

Research Interests

Prof Ardavan’s research is multidisciplinary, based in physics, but with strong collaborations with chemists. The group benefits from close links with other world-leading research activities internationally.

His current research interests lie mainly in studying the effects of correlations in condensed matter systems. For example, while some of the properties of metals can be successfully explained by considering a large collection of electrons that are free to move around without directly influencing each other, many of the most interesting properties, such as superconductivity and magnetism, can only be explained by considering the consequences of the mutual repulsion (or correlations) between the electrons. This and related phenomena motivate his experiments in various systems, including:

• electrical and thermoelectric effects in strongly correlated superconductors to elucidate the mechanisms of superconductivity; and
• coherent control of the spin states of single-molecule magnets and other quantum spin systems to investigate their potential for applications in quantum information processing.

Selected Publications

• “New kind of magneto optical resonance observed in the organic metal α-(BEDT-TTF)2KHg(SCN)4”, A Ardavan, JM Schrama, SJ Blundell, J Singleton, W Hayes, M Kurmoo, P Day, P Goy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 713—716 (1998)
• “Effect of irradiation-induced disorder on the conductivity and critical temperature of the organic superconductor κ-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(SCN)2”, JG Analytis, A Ardavan, SJ Blundell, RL Owen, EF Garman, C Jeynes, BJ Powell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 177002 (2006)
• “Will spin-relaxation times in molecular magnets permit quantum information processing?”, A Ardavan, O Rival, JJL Morton, SJ Blundell, AM Tyryshkin, GA Timco, REP Winpenny, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 057201 (2007)
• “Fluctuating superconductivity in organic molecular metals close to the Mott transition”, MS Nam, A Ardavan, SJ Blundell, JA Schlueter, Nature 449, 584—587 (2007)
• “Solid state quantum memory using the 31P nuclear spin”, JJL Morton, AM Tyryshkin, RM Brown, S Shankar, BW Lovett, A Ardavan, T Schenkel, EE Haller, JW Ager, SA Lyon, Nature 455, 1085—1088 (2008)
• “Chemical engineering of molecular qubits”, CJ Wedge, GA Timco, ET Spielberg, RE George, F. Tuna, S. Rigby, EJL McInnes, REP Winpenny, SJ Blundell, A Ardavan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 107204 (2012)
• “Coherent spin control by electrical manipulation of the magnetic anisotropy”, RE George, JP Edwards, A Ardavan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 027601 (2013)
• “Electron paramagnetic resonance of individual atoms on a surface”, S Baumann, W Paul, T Choi, CP Lutz, A Ardavan, AJ Heinrich, Science 350, 417—420 (2015)
• “Electric field control of spins in molecular magnets”, J Liu, J Mrozek, WK Myers, GA Timco, REP Winpenny, B Kintzel, W Plass, A Ardavan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 037202 (2019)
• “Coherent spin manipulation of individual atoms on a surface”, K Yang, W Paul, S-H Phark, P Willke, Y Bae, T Choi, T Esat, A Ardavan, AJ Heinrich, CP Lutz, Science 366, 509 (2019)