ERC (UKRI) Advanced Grant awarded to Stephen Blundell

Stephen Blundell was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant in 2022 to fund a project using muons, spin-polarised radioactive particles, to study spin liquids, exotic phases of matter in which the individual magnetic moments form a liquid-like state. The research will aim to develop new methods for identifying the preferred implantation sites of muons inside crystals and will deploy pulses of microwave radiation to control the state of the muon and other magnetic moments with which the muon interacts. These techniques will then be used to learn about the mysterious spin liquids and show how their quantum mechanical properties emerge.  This five-year grant is now funded by UKRI and began in November 2022.