The strange phenomena of quantum mechanics were not expected to play a direct role in life, however, it appears that quantum effects may be important in the efficient capture of sunlight for photosynthesis. The conditions for the emergence of quantum phenomena appear to be set by the structures of proteins. The aim of this project is to relate protein structure to the emergence of quantum effects in the light harvesting proteins of marine algae. Understanding the link between structure and quantum effects could improve our knowledge of how nature achieves its remarkable efficiency in utilising the energy from the sun. This is likely to foster new technologies that improve the efficiency of solar energy systems.

 

 

 

 

The project aims to contribute to both fundamental science and its applications. The project proposes new ideas, methods and calculations to test unification theories using effects of violation of the fundamental symmetries P, T, Lorentz symmetry and the equivalence principle in atomic and molecular phenomena, and to search for space-time variation of the fundamental constants across the Universe using both astrophysical observations and laboratory experiments. The outcomes of this project may lead to the proposal of new atomic, nuclear and molecular clocks and the calculations needed to estimate and improve the accuracy of these clocks.

 

 

 

 

Most electronic devices are powered by conventional transistors that use a 50 year old technology which is nearing the end of its lifetime. Spin-based electronics uses the electron's spin instead of its charge to store, process and transfer information. Although half of all transistors on a chip use holes, almost all research has focussed on electrons. Holes have completely different spin properties than electrons and are predicted to have significant advantages for spin based quantum information processing. This project aims to develop single hole quantum dots, test theoretical predictions of the superiority of holes over electrons and develop new techniques for all-electrical spin manipulation.

 

 

 

 

The high-speed and low-power requirements of state-of-the-art transistors are met by material control that has reached an unprecedented level. The material in a nano-device has drastically different characteristics than in the bulk. To achieve this, the industry needs to implement strain, ultra sharp junctions, and well controlled potential profiles all on the nanometre scale. This project aims to develop a technique to directly measure these properties in an actual device. Electrical and optical atom tomography will make it possible to map device parameters on the atomic scale. This atomistic anatomy has the potential to revolutionise the development of nanoscale devices and grow into a tool for a multi-billion dollar industry.

 

 

 

 

Speech is fundamental to human culture and huge industries exist that analyse, compress, synthesise, transmit and distribute it. Nevertheless, several practical difficulties mean that some key variables and how they interact are only imprecisely known. This project uses an innovative approach for deriving the glottal flow and a new technique for generating precise acoustical flows in model systems to refine the algorithms currently used to relate speech sound to the acoustic flow in the larynx. The project aims to provide the first reliable measurements of the bandwidths of resonances and the acoustical losses in vocal tracts. The results will have practical industrial and, perhaps, clinical applications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veloce - Australia's next-generation planet foundry: This project will deliver to Australian astronomers a high-resolution, ultra-stabilised, red-wavelength-optimised spectrograph capable of delivering high-precision doppler velocities for the transiting exoplanet host-stars being discovered now by southern hemisphere transit-planet searches, and for the coming wave of discoveries to be made by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). In addition it will enable a vast suite of new research programs in exoplanetary science and galactic archaeology, as well as providing a sound base of ultra-stable infrastructure enabling future expansion to cover the full optical wavelength range at minimal cost.

 

 

 

 

A low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscope: The project aims to establish a facility to exploit the spectroscopic and spatial resolution of an ultra-low temperature scanning tunnelling microscope in conjunction with atomically controlled dopant engineering. In a variety of experiments the research team will explore ultra-scaled transistors, quantum information science devices, and engineered quantum matter. Improving our ability to investigate semiconductor materials at the atomic scale impacts fields ranging from electronics, telecommunication, quantum information to renewable energy research and puts Australia at the forefront of the field of controlled atomic systems in semiconductors.

 

 

 

 

Fabrication facility for oxygen-sensitive electronic materials: Turning new materials into functional devices is necessary before their benefits can be widely exploited. This project will provide researchers with a glovebox capability to make devices with materials that are degraded by exposure to oxygen. In particular, the project will use this equipment to make new electronics devices based on organic semiconducting materials, investigate oxygen-sensitive materials for energy storage, and undertake fundamental studies of surfaces and interfaces.

 

 

 

 

Fabrication facility for oxygen-sensitive electronic materials: Turning new materials into functional devices is necessary before their benefits can be widely exploited. This project will provide researchers with a glovebox capability to make devices with materials that are degraded by exposure to oxygen. In particular, the project will use this equipment to make new electronics devices based on organic semiconducting materials, investigate oxygen-sensitive materials for energy storage, and undertake fundamental studies of surfaces and interfaces.