Dr Niclas Westerberg
I joined the Quantum Theory Group as a Research Fellow in late 2019, before which I worked as Research Associate at Heriot-Watt University. The latter is also where I completed my PhD. Before this, I did some research with the ExtremeLight group, currently also at Glasgow, during both my BSc (Heriot-Watt) and my MSc (Edinburgh).
My research interests are wide but mostly concentrated around light-matter interactions, with some brief excursions into gravity and high-energy physics every now and then. This has included looking into spontaneous photon pairs emitted from time-dependent optical media, probing how droplets of light form, as well as investigating the `speed' of twisted photons, to name a couple of examples. I particularly enjoy approaching research using what can, and probably should, be considered odd methods, for instance using a `position' space path integral setting to study macroscopic quantum electrodynamics. Oh, and I commonly work closely with experimentalists. Physics should be tested, after all.
Currently, I am pursuing a research programme that combines quantum optics and condensed matter, specifically to use the concept of topology as a tool for efficient entangled photon production in man-made metamaterials.