Two research scientists over a laser table
Credit: Jack Hobhouse
Sub-department

Atomic and Laser Physics

About

2026 UROP Vacation Projects in Atomic & Laser Physics

We are offering several undergraduate research projects within Atomic & Laser Physics. Students selected for these projects will be paid the Oxford Living Wage (from April 2026: £14.06 per hour), subject to tax and National Insurance deductions. The duration and weekly hours of projects may vary. 

Eligibility

These projects are open to:

  • Current undergraduate students
  • Students in taught Master’s programs

Preference may be given to candidates not starting a Ph.D. program in 2026.

We welcome applications from students at universities outside Oxford.

📌 Work eligibility requirement:

  • Applicants must not require a visa to work in the UK.
  • Tier 4 visa holders in the UK may apply if their visa permits vacation employment.

How to apply

  1. Submit a 2-page application (as one PDF file) via email to Gail Jackson (alpadmin@physics.ox.ac.uk) with "UROP" in the subject line.
     
  2. Your PDF file must be named:
    📂 LAST NAME_First Name_ALP UROP_Name of Project Applied for
     
  3. Your application must include:
    1️⃣ One-page statement (≤500 words)
    1. Why do you want to do the project?
    2. Your previous experience.
    3. Research topics or projects of interest.
       
  4. 2️⃣ One-page CV
     
  5. 📌 Reference Requirement:
    1. You must provide the contact details (including email) of an academic referee.
    2. Your referee must submit a short letter of support separately via email to Gail Jackson (alpadmin@physics.ox.ac.uk) .

Applying for Multiple Projects?

  1. If you are applying for more than one project, you must submit a separate application for each project. Your file name should reflect the new project applied for and the covering letter should addreess the particular project applied for.
    📂 Rename your email subject and PDF file accordingly for each project.

2026 Projects

Project Title: Enabling operations on long chains in a trapped-ion quantum computer

Supervisor: Dr. Christopher Ballance

Duration: 10 weeks, full-time, starting late June

Project Details: Trapped-ions are one of the most promising platforms for quantum computing, featuring excellent state preparation, measurement, and gate fidelities. Ions with nuclear spin and long-lived metastable manifolds such as Ba-137+ offer a wide array of qubit/qudit encodings and entangling gate schemes, and also naturally support mid-circuit measurement and reset. We at the ABaQuS lab are exploring the full potential of the Ba-137+ ion for quantum computing by designing experiments that take advantage of this rich level structure, but in order to make the most convincing and impactful demonstrations, we need to upgrade to a chain of ~8-10 ions.

To implement this chain successfully, it is crucial that each ion experiences a uniform magnetic field (both strength and direction) along the chain (5 um between each ion typically). Creating such a uniform field requires thoughtful design and testing with a combination of permanent magnet arrays and current-carrying coils. The end goal of this summer project is to build, install, and characterize this magnetic field setup for our ion trap. In the design and build phases, the student will gain hands-on experience with magnetic field sensing equipment, and CAD software. Once the setup has demonstrated field uniformity on its own, it can then be integrated into the ion trap experiment, and the student will learn to operate the trapped-ion experiment in order to characterize the true B-field at the position of the ions.

For more information on the ABaQuS: https://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/research/group/ion-trap-quantum-computing/research-areas/abaqus

Closing date: Friday 17 April 2026