Ben Sparkes
School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology
I am a quantum technology researcher working within the Precision Measurement Group in the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (School of Physics Sciences). I obtained my PhD in Physics from the Australian National University in 2013, where I developed techniques to store and manipulate optical quantum information. In 2013 I moved to the University of Melbourne to work on the development of a cold atom electron/ion source, our goal being to create ultra-short ultra-bright bunches of electrons for single-shot diffraction imaging of biological samples, as well as incredibly focused ion beams for sub-nanometer resolution fabrication. I was awarded a McKenzie Fellowship from the University of Melbourne from 2014-2016, which allowed me to investigate novel methods to improve the source performance. In 2017 I joined the University of Adelaide as an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow, working towards realising a fibre-based optical quantum information network for absolutely secure communications and next-generation computing.
- My Research
- Career
- Publications
- Grants and Funding
- Teaching
- Supervision
- Professional Activities
- Contact
For more information on the research being carried out by the Precision Measurement Group, please see its website. In July 2019 I presented the University of Adelaide Research Tuesday seminar on the important role quantum mechanics is playing in our lives today, and its promise for the world of tomorrow, which can be viewed here. I am also involved in outreach through The Amazing University of Adelaide Laser Radio program. For this work I was awarded the 2018 SA Tall Poppy of the Year award at the SA Science Excellence Awards.
Video courtesy of the Department for Industry and Skills, Government of South Australia.
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Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2020 - ongoing Quantum Technology Researcher Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing 2017 - 2020 ARC DECRA Fellow The University of Adelaide 2014 - 2016 McKenzie Fellow The University of Melbourne 2013 - 2013 Research Fellow The University of Melbourne -
Awards and Achievements
Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount 2019 Scholarship Fulbright Future Scholarship Australian-American Fulbright Commission Australia - 2018 Award SA Tall Poppy of the Year Australian Institute of Policy & Science Australia - -
Education
Date Institution name Country Title 2010 - 2011 The Australian National University Australia Graduate Certificate in Higher Education 2009 - 2013 The Australian National University Australia PhD 2005 - 2008 The Australian National University Australia Bachelor of Philosophy in Science (PhB - Hons) -
Research Interests
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Journals
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Conference Papers
Year Citation 2020 Koumi, Z., Sparkes, B., Swierkowski, L., Drake, S., & Ottaway, D. (2020). Determining the advantage of quantum radar. In Proceedings of the 14th Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO PR 2020) Vol. 321 (pp. 1-2). online: OSA/IEEE.
DOI2019 Rowland, J., Light, P. S., Luiten, A. N., Perrella, C., & Sparkes, B. M. (2019). Injection locking of a pulsed VCSEL. In Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering Vol. 11200 (pp. 1-3). online: SPIE.
DOI2019 Hedger, J. P., Luiten, A. N., & Sparkes, B. M. (2019). Compact stable fibre-based optical frequency filter. In Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering Vol. 11200 (pp. 1-3). online: SPIE.
DOI2014 Speirs, R. W., Thompson, D. J., Murphy, D., Sparkes, B. M., & Scholten, R. E. (2014). Electron diffraction from a cold atom electron source. In Frontiers in Optics, FiO 2014 (pp. FTh1A.3). OSA.
DOI2014 Speirs, R., Thompson, D., Murphy, D., Sparkes, B., & Scholten, R. (2014). Electron diffraction from a cold atom electron source. In Frontiers in Optics, FiO 2014. 2014 Sparkes, B., Cairns, C., Hosseini, M., Higginbottom, D., Campbell, G., Lam, P., & Buchler, B. (2014). Precision spectral manipulation: a demonstration using a coherent optical memory. In H. Schmiedmayer, & P. Walther (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Quantum Communication, Measurement and Computing (QCMC 2012), as published in AIP Conference Proceedings Vol. 1633 (pp. 270-272). Vienna, AUSTRIA: American Institute of Physics.
DOI2013 Lam, P., Hosseini, M., Campbell, G., Pinel, O., Sparkes, B., Twamley, J., . . . Buchler, B. (2013). Building a quantum repeater with quantum memories and noiseless amplifiers. In Proceedings of the 10th Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim (CLEO-PR 2013) Vol. 86 (pp. 1-2). Kyoto, Japan: IEEE.
DOI WoS42013 Giner, L., Veissier, L., Sparkes, B., Sheremet, A., Nicolas, A., Mishina, O., . . . Laurat, J. (2013). Discriminating between the Autler-Townes splitting and the electromagnetically-induced transparency models: a tool for probing the medium properties. In Proceedings of the CLEO 2013, OSA Technical Digest Vol. 107 (pp. 1-2). San Jose, CA: OSA Publishing.
DOI2013 Giner, L., Veissier, L., Sparkes, B., Sheremet, A., Nicolas, A., Mishina, O., . . . Laurat, J. (2013). Experimental investigation of the transition between Autler-Townes splitting and electromagnetically-induced transparency models. In Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and International Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/EUROPE/IQEC) (pp. 1). Munich, Germany: IEEE.
DOI2013 Hosseini, M., Rebic, S., Sparkes, B., Twamley, J., Buchler, B., & Lam, P. (2013). Quantum nonlinear optics using optical memory. In Optics InfoBase Conference Papers. 2013 Buchler, B., Hosseini, M., Sparkes, B., Geng, J., Bernu, J., Campbell, G., . . . Lam, P. (2013). Programmable quantum memory in atomic ensembles. In Optics InfoBase Conference Papers. 2013 Buchler, B., Hosseini, M., Sparkes, B., Geng, J., Bernu, J., Campbell, G., . . . Lam, P. K. (2013). Programmable quantum memory in atomic ensembles. In Optics InfoBase Conference Papers (pp. FM3D.2). OSA.
DOI2013 Hosseini, M., Rebic, S., Sparkes, B. M., Twamley, J., Buchler, B. C., & Lam, P. K. (2013). Quantum nonlinear optics using optical memory. In Optics InfoBase Conference Papers (pp. NW1A.2). OSA.
DOI2011 Hosseini, M., Sparkes, B. M., Campbell, G., Buchler, B. C., & Lam, P. K. (2011). A room temperature quantum optical memory. In Optics InfoBase Conference Papers (pp. QTuG1). OSA.
DOI2011 Hosseini, M., Campbell, G., Sparkes, B., Lam, P., & Buchler, B. (2011). A room temperature quantum memory. In Proceedings of the International Quantum Electronics Conference and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim 2011 Vol. 24 (pp. 510-512). Sydney, Australia: IEEE.
DOI2011 Chrzanowski, H., Bernu, J., Sparkes, B., Hage, B., Lund, A., Ralph, T., . . . Symul, T. (2011). Photon number discrimination without a photon counter and reconstructing non-Gaussian states of light. In Optics InfoBase Conference Papers (pp. 1754-1755). 2011 Hosseini, M., Sparkes, B., Campbell, G., Buchler, B., & Lam, P. (2011). A room temperature quantum optical memory. In Optics InfoBase Conference Papers. International Conference on Quantum Information, ICQI 2011 (pp. 1-3). Online: OSA Publishing. 2011 Sparkes, B., Hosseini, M., Hétet, G., Lam, P., & Buchler, B. (2011). Spectral manipulation of optical pulses using the gradient echo memory scheme. In Proceedings of the International Quantum Electronics Conference and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim 2011 (pp. 513-514). Sydney, Australia: IEEE.
DOI2011 Buchler, B., Hosseini, M., Hétet, G., Sparkes, B., Longdell, J., Sellars, M., & Lam, P. (2011). High efficiency gradient echo memory with 3-level atoms. In AIP Conference Proceedings. 10th International Conference on Quantum Communication, Measurement and Computing, QCMC 2010 Vol. 1363 (pp. 383-388). Online: AIP Publishing LLC.
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Media
Year Citation - Perrella, C., Sparkes, B., Janvier, E., & Lincoln, P. (n.d.). Laser Radio.
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Currently Held Grants and Fellowships:
- DST-EQUS Grant (2019-2020)
- Title: Frequency Conversion via Four-Wave Mixing for Long-Distance Quantum Communications
- Chief Investigators: T. J. Weinhold, B. M. Sparkes
- Funding: $100,000
- Summary: Our aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of performing frequency conversion of light pulses from 795nm to 1530nm - a critical step for achieving long-distance quantum communications using efficient Rubidium-based quantum memories. We will achieve this by using four-wave mixing with warm Rubidium atoms stored in a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre.
- Australia-Germany Joint Research Co-Operation Scheme (2019-2020)
- Title: Quantum Simulations with Stationary Light in Hollow Fibres
- Chief Investigators: B. M. Sparkes, A. N. Luiten, C. Perrella, P. S. Light, J. P. Hedger, P. Windpassinger
- Funding: $22,500
- Summary: By engineering “crystals of light” through enhanced atom-light interactions within the hollow core of special optical fibres, this Project will realise a new, improved form of quantum simulator that will be flexible, scalable and easy to read. This is important as a quantum simulator will allow us to study crucial quantum systems that cannot be studied via conventional physics.
- Next Generation Technology Fund (2019-2020)
- Title: Quantum Radar for Stealth Detection
- Chief Investigators: D. Ottaway, B. M. Sparkes, L. Swierkowski, B. Smith, G. Nash
- Funding: $243,000
- Summary: Quantum radar is a complex topic that encompasses many areas of physics and engineering. Research into quantum radar is evolving rapidly. This Project will combine expertise on classical radar and lidar systems, atmospheric physics, quantum optical information transmission and storage, as well as the engineering of novel light sources and detectors to provide an up-to-date expert assessment of feasibility and predicted benefit of quantum radar.
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Previously Held Grants and Fellowships:
- ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award DE170100752 (2017-2019)
- Title: Fully-Integrated Fibre-Based Platform for a Quantum Information Network
- Chief Investigator: B. M. Sparkes
- Funding: $360,000
- Summary: This Project will implement novel quantum information storage protocols in the hollow-core fibre systems available at the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing.
- Fulbright Future Scholarship (2019-2020)
- Title: Changing Colours in Optical Fibres: The Key to Long-Distance Quantum-Secured Communications
- Chief Investigators: B. M. Sparkes
- Funding: $13,000
- Summary: Information encoded onto single particles of light is the key to future global cybersecurity. This Fulbright Fellowship will combine unique Australian expertise in atom-light interactions with world-leading experience in mixing multi-coloured light fields at Columbia University to enable the development of next-generation secure communications by dramatically increasing the distance of quantum-secured fibre information networks. More information available here.
- ARC Linkage Project LP150101188 (2015-2018)
- Title: Optical Technology for Quantum Science
- Chief Investigators: R. E. Scholten, R. Starr, N. P. Robins, M. Biercuk, E. Huntington, B. M. Sparkes
- Funding: $350,000
- Summary: The Project is developing precision instrumentation both to enhance scientific research and to strengthen ties with industry through commercialisation.
- University of Melbourne McKenzie Fellowship (2014-2017)
- Title: High Resolution, Ultra-fast Imaging of Biological Crystals with a Cold Atom Electron/Ion Source
- Chief Investigator: B. M. Sparkes
- Funding: $320,000
- Summary: This fellowship scheme is to attract outstanding recent doctoral graduates to the University of Melbourne, and provided me with salary and $25k for the purchase of equipment over three years.
- Defence Science and Technology Group CERA Grant (2017-2018)
- Title: High-Performance Optical Clock for Satellite and UAV Applications
- Chief Investigator: C. Perrella; Associate Investigators: P. Light, F. Baynes, B. M. Sparkes, A. Luiten
- Funding: $97,711
- Summary: This Project, in the inaugural DST CERA round, is aiming to develop a high-performance and compact optical clock for GPS applications.
My teaching at the University of Adelaide includes:
- Photonics IV (Lecturer, 2017-2020)
- Optics and Photonics III (Lecturer, 2017-2018)
- Principles & Practice of Research II (Mentor, 2018)
- Principles & Practice of Research III (Mentor, 2018)
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Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2021 Principal Supervisor Distant clock synchronisation Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Sabrina Slimani 2020 Co-Supervisor NGTF quantum technology stream quest to build a portable atomic clock Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Benjamin Robert White -
Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2018 - 2024 Principal Supervisor Applying Fibre Bragg Grating Fabry-Perot Resonators for Filtering and Sensing Applications Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Jonathan Peter Hedger
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Committee Memberships
Date Role Committee Institution Country 2019 - ongoing Secretary Quantum Information Concepts and Coherence Topical Group Australian Institute of Physics Australia 2018 - ongoing Member IPAS Scientific Leadership Committee Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing Australia 2018 - ongoing Co-Chair IPAS Science Network University of Adelaide Australia 2017 - 2017 Member IPAS Science Network University of Adelaide Australia -
Memberships
Date Role Membership Country 2014 - ongoing Member Australian Institute of Physics Australia 2014 - ongoing Member American Physical Society United States 2009 - ongoing Member Optical Society of America United States 2009 - ongoing Member Australian Optical Society Australia
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