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Oliver Williams

Professor Oliver Williams

Director of Research
Condensed Matter and Photonics Group

School of Physics and Astronomy

Email
WilliamsO@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 74978
Campuses
Queen's Buildings - North Building, Room N/1.33, 5 The Parade, Newport Road, Cardiff, CF24 3AA

Overview

Oliver Williams completed his PhD on the electronic properties of diamond at University College London in 2003. He then moved to Argonne National Laboratory where he held the Distinguished Postdoctoral appointment at the Centre for Nanoscale Materials.

In 2004 he joined the Institute for Materials Research in Belgium, an affiliated lab of IMEC vzw. He developed nanocrystalline diamond growth, specialising on the nucleation of ultra-thin diamond films and control of diamond electrical conductivity from intrinsic to superconducting.

He then received the Fraunhofer Attract award to move to the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Research in Freiburg and develop Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems from nanocrystalline diamond.

In 2011 he moved to Cardiff as a Reader in Experimental Physics and Marie Curie Fellow. Here he established Cardiff Diamond Foundry, the largest diamond growth group in the UK. His group focuses on MEMS, superconductivity, single photon sources, high frequency filters, thermal management and anything that exploits the extreme materials properties of diamond. He currently holds a Personal Chair in Experimental Physics.

Publication

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Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

Research

I am interested in all applications of diamond from Microelectromechanical Systems to single photon sources. I focus on the growth and processing technology of diamond to realise these devices for collaborators from Boston University through Institute Neel in Grenoble to the Nanocarbon Research Institute in Japan.

I mostly work on nanodiamond, both films and particles. I have several patents on the growth of nanocrystalline diamond films and the purification of diamond nanoparticles.

Cardiff Diamond Foundry has extensive facilities in these areas, ranging from high power Microwave Plasma Chemical Vapour Deposition systems, through custom high vacuum furnaces to Chemical Mechanical Polishing.

For more information on my current research activities, please visit:

www.cardiffdiamondfoundry.com

Teaching

  • PX 3242 - Semiconductor Devices and Applications
  • 4th year project supervision
  • Module leader of "Devices & Fabrication" DST-CDT Module 7 of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Diamond Technology

Biography

Professional memberships

  • Fellow of the Institute of Physics
  • Associate editor of Elsevier “Diamond and Related Materials”.
  • EPSRC Peer Review College Member
  • Member of FWO WC&T3 Experts Panel (Belgium Research Council's CMP elected panel)