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In some M-point moiré materials, electrons lock into crisscrossing patterns — a sign of one-dimensional behaviour. In certain cases, they can also freeze into orthonormal valence bond dimers, revealing a deeper layer of quantum order.

A new class of moiré materials unlocks uncharted quantum behaviour

An international team has introduced a novel class of twistable quantum materials, opening up a broader landscape for quantum simulation and discovery.

Dr Sian Tedaldi

Meet...Sian Tedaldi

We work among extraordinary people doing extraordinary things; get to know some of them by reading these quick-fire interviews.

Dr Sophia Vaughan

Dr Vaughan awarded RAS thesis prize

Dr Sophia Vaughan has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society's Michael Penston Thesis Prize following her DPhil at the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics.

Artist’s illustration of the RAVEN technique, which measures a complex light pulse using micro foci and spectral dispersion, which is then fed into a neural network for retrieval.

New technique for capturing ultra-intense laser pulses in a single shot

Physicists at the University of Oxford have unveiled a pioneering method for capturing the full structure of ultra-intense laser pulses in a single measurement.

Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

A royal summer of physics

The Department of Physics is taking part in the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition 2025 in London from 1-6 July.

International Year of Quantum

Creating a quantum future

Events and activities across the Department of Physics are ensuring that people of all ages get to know about how quantum will potentially impact their lives.

NSF-DOE Rubin Trifid and Lagoon nebulas

First look: the trailer for Rubin’s movie of the sky

The first images from the extraordinary NSF-DOE Vera C Rubin Observatory have been made public today.

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell CH

Jocelyn Bell Burnell appointed Companion of Honour

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been appointed Companion of Honour in the King’s Birthday Honours List 2025 for her services to astronomy and physics and to diversity.

Quantum lab

New world record for qubit operation accuracy

Physicists at the University of Oxford have set a new global benchmark for the accuracy of controlling a single quantum bit, achieving the lowest-ever error rate for a quantum logic operation – just 0.000015%, or one error in 6.7 million operations.

Deaglan Bartlett

Meet...Deaglan Bartlett

We work among extraordinary people doing extraordinary things; get to know some of them by reading these quick-fire interviews.

Illustration of photon-photon scattering in the laboratory. Two green petawatt lasers beams collide at the focus with a third red beam to polarise the quantum vacuum. This allows a fourth blue laser beam to be generated, with a unique direction and colour, which conserves momemtum and energy.

Oxford physicists recreate extreme quantum vacuum effects

Physicists have successfully simulated how light interacts with empty space – a phenomenon once thought to belong to science fiction; the findings pave the way for real-world laser facilities to experimentally confirm bizarre quantum phenomena.

The Very Large Array sees fountains of hot gas erupting from a beastly black hole in the heart of a large galaxy known to radio astronomers as Hercules A. For millions of trillions of miles, these jets shoot through space, finally slowing when they reach ancient gaseous hiccups left behind by this galaxy’s earliest days of star-forming fury.

Black holes: nature’s own supercolliders

Scientists could turn to black holes to complement facilities searching for dark matter and similarly elusive particles that hold clues to the universe’s deepest secrets, a new study by Oxford researchers suggests.