PhD student Syl Shaw and supervisor Rudo Roemer apply the real-space renormalisation group method to the Chalker–Coddington model of the quantum Hall transition. This approach provides a convenient numerical estimation of the localisation critical exponent, ν. Previous such studies found ν=2.39 which falls considerably short of the current best estimates by transfer matrix (2.593) and exact-diagonalisation studies (2.58). By increasing the amount of data 500 fold they can now measure closer to the critical point and find an improved estimate 2.51. This deviates only 3% from the previous two values and is already better than the 7% accuracy of the classical small-cell renormalisation approach from which their method is adapted.

Areej Aljaghwani, a 2^nd year PhD student from Maksym Myronov’s Semiconductors Research Group was awarded second place in the Phil Buckle Research Communication Competition held during the UK Semiconductors Conference in July 2024.

A group of staff and postgraduate students from the department inspired students and teachers with exciting experiments and interactive games at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham at the end of June.

Congratulations to our 2024 postgraduate (research) students who have won prizes for their thesis and our second year poster prize winners.