Staff profile

PhD and Postdoc Opportunities *AVAILABLE NOW*

We are currently seeking high quality applications for PhD students and Postdoctoral Research Assistants (PDRAs). A PhD position "Searching for a Fifth Force with Ultracold H Atoms" is available.

Applications for PhD positions must be made online here if you wish to be associated with the Department of Physics, or here if you wish to be associated with the Department of Chemistry. To qualify for a PhD position, candidates should have a high quality degree in physics, chemistry or a related discipline. We welcome applications from those with paid scholarships as well as from those requiring funding.

Applications for PDRA (postdoc) positions must ultimately be made via the Durham University recruitment web site, but initial enquiries should be made to me by email (see above).

Research Interests

It has been a long-standing goal of physicists and physical chemists to gain full control over the external and internal degrees of freedom of molecules in the gas phase. Advances in state-selection of molecules using molecular beam, laser, and electric and magnetic field based techniques have reached a stage where it is almost routine to produce intense samples of molecules in a single, selected, rovibronic state. However, only relatively recently have techniques been demonstrated where all of the translational degrees of freedom of molecules can be manipulated and controlled. Fine control is easier the slower the molecules are moving, and since velocity is proportional to temperature, control is also easier at low translational temperatures.

Many techniques have been explored to produce molecules with low translational temperatures and for many applications. For details, see the recent review by Carr et al. The techniques that my group is actively engaged with are:

• Moving trap Zeeman deceleration.
• Photostop.

The applications that we are interested in are:

• Controlled cold and ultracold chemistry.

• Search for a fifth force and dark matter with precision spectroscopy of ultracold H atoms.

Moving Trap Zeeman Deceleration

Under construction

Photostop

Under construction

Controlled Cold and Ultracold Collisions

See Quantum Light and Matter web page.

Search for a fifth force and dark matter with precision spectroscopy

Under construction.

David Carty carried out his undergraduate MChem degree at The University of Edinburgh where he worked on research project with Prof. Robert Donovan and graduated in 1999. He then carried out his PhD at the University of Birmingham (1999 - 2003) where he was supervised by Prof. Ian R. Sims (now at the Université de Rennes 1) and the late Prof. Ian W. M. Smith FRS. His work focused on the kinetics of neutral gas-phase chemical reactions relevant to the interstellar medium at temperatures down to 10 K. The highlight of his PhD work was in the technically challenging study of the O + OH reaction (J. Phys. Chem. A, 2006, 110, 3101) where he ruled out the possibility that a low rate for that reaction could explain the low observed abundance of molecular oxygen in outer space.

Following his PhD, David worked as a postdoc for Prof. Gerard Meijer at the Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin where he worked on a molecular synchrotron storage ring for neutral polar molecules (Nature Physics, 2007, 3, 115).

In 2005, David moved to the University of Oxford to work as a postdoc for Prof. Tim P. Softley where he worked on Stark deceleration of neutral polar molecules for use in cold ion-molecule reactions.

In Sepember 2007, David was appointed as Lecturer in a joint position between the Chemistry and Physics departments. Since then, David has attracted considerable research funding, as part of a consortium from Durham and Imperial College London, through an EPSRC Programme Grant entitled MMQA: MicroKelvin Molecules in a Quantum Array.

David is a husband to Annabel and a father to Madeleine and Sebastian.

• Cold and Ultracold Molecule Production
• Controlled Cold and Ultracold Chemistry
• Search for a fifth force and dark matter

Journal Article

• Scott, J. P., Potvliege, R. M., Carty, D., & Jones, M. P. A. (2024). Trap induced broadening in a potential hydrogen lattice clock. Metrologia, 61(2), Article 025001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/ad1e37
• Labiad, H., Fournier, M., Mertens, L. A., Faure, A., Carty, D., Stoecklin, T., …Sims, I. R. (2022). Absolute measurements of state-to-state rotational energy transfer between CO and H2 at interstellar temperatures. Physical Review A, 105(2), Article L020802. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.105.l020802
• Walker, P., Krohn, U., & Carty, D. (2019). ARBTools: A Tricubic Spline Interpolator for Three-Dimensional Scalar or Vector Fields. Journal of Open Research Software, 7(1), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.5334/jors.258
• Mertens, L., Labiad, H., Denis-Alpizar, O., Fournier, M., Carty, D., Le Picard, S. D., …Sims, I. R. (2017). Rotational energy transfer in collisions between CO and Ar at temperatures from 293 to 30 K. Chemical Physics Letters, 683, 521-528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2017.05.052
• Eardley, J., Warner, N., Deng, L., Carty, D., & Wrede, E. (2017). Magnetic trapping of SH radicals. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 19(12), 8423-8427. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7cp00458c
• Liu, Y., Vashishta, M., Djuricanin, P., Zhou, S., Zhong, W., Mittertreiner, T., …Momose, T. (2017). Magnetic trapping of cold methyl radicals. Physical Review Letters, 118(9), Article 093201. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.118.093201
• Nourbakhsh, O., Michan, J., Mittertreiner, T., Carty, D., Wrede, E., Djuricanin, P., & Momose, T. (2015). State purified deceleration of SD radicals by a Stark decelerator. Molecular Physics, 113(24), 4007-4018. https://doi.org/10.1080/00268976.2015.1109151
• Mizouri, A., Deng, L., Eardley, J., Nahler, N., Wrede, E., & Carty, D. (2013). Absolute density measurement of SD radicals in a supersonic jet at the quantum-noise-limit. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 15(45), 19575-19579. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3cp53394h
• Momose, T., Liu, Y., Zhou, S., Djuricanin, P., & Carty, D. (2013). Manipulation of translational motion of methyl radicals by pulsed magnetic fields. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 15(6), 1772-1777. https://doi.org/10.1039/c2cp43796a
• Doherty, W., Bell, M., Softley, T., Rowland, A., Wrede, E., & Carty, D. (2011). Production of cold bromine atoms at zero mean velocity by photodissociation. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 13(18), 8441-8447. https://doi.org/10.1039/c0cp02472d
• Trottier, A., Carty, D., & Wrede, E. (2011). Photostop: production of zero-velocity molecules by photodissociation in a molecular beam. Molecular Physics, 109(5), 725-733. https://doi.org/10.1080/00268976.2010.550142
• Heiner, C., Carty, D., Meijer, G., & Bethlem, H. (2007). A molecular synchrotron. Nature Physics, 3(2), 115-118. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys513
• Bethlem, H., Tarbutt, M., Kupper, J., Carty, D., Wohlfart, K., Hinds, E., & Meijer, G. (2006). Alternating gradient focusing and deceleration of polar molecules. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 39(16), R263-R291. https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/39/16/r01
• Carty, D., Goddard, A., Kohler, S., Sims, I., & Smith, I. (2006). Kinetics of the radical-radical reaction, O(triplet P,J + OH(X doublet pi omega) - O2 + H, at temperatures down to 39 K. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 110(9), 3101-3109. https://doi.org/10.1021/jp054429u
• Carty, D., Goddard, A., Sims, I., & Smith, I. (2004). Rotational energy transfer in collisions between CO(X¹Σ⁺, v=2, J=0, 1,4, and 6) and He at temperatures from 294 to 15 K. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 121(10), 4671-4683. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1780163
• Carty, D., Le Page, V., Sims, I., & Smith, I. (2001). Low temperature rate coefficients for the reactions of CN and C₂H radicals with allene (CH₂=C=CH₂) and methyl acetylene (CH₃C=CH). Chemical Physics Letters, 344(3-4), 310-316. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0009-2614%2801%2900682-0