Recent Outreach Activities

Well, high school physics (courtesy Herr (Mr.) Albert Einstein) tells us that when a material is subjected to illumination, an electron in released from the valence to the conduction band under the condition that the energy of the incoming photon is higher than the band gap of the material. This effect is known as the photoelectric effect. If, by any means, this electron is forced to remain in conduction band, then a persistent current can be drawn from the material. This is pretty much the underlying mechanism of solar cells, where such electrons are inhibited from recombining by creating an artificial potential junction...

Many organic dyes change colour when they are in a solvent. By enabling prediction of these shifts of optical excitations from quantum mechanical modelling, research led by Dr Nicholas Hine may lead to theoretical spectroscopy playing a greater role in the toolkit of industrial chemists in fields such as food manufacturing, textiles, and pharmaceuticals.

In June 2015, a black hole called V404 Cygni underwent dramatic brightening for about two weeks. An international team of astronomers, including the University of Warwick, report that the black hole emitted dazzling red flashes lasting just fractions of a second, as it blasted out material that it could not swallow...