Dr Raymond McQuaid is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics. In the past, he developed novel Focused Ion Beam approaches for fabricating nanostructured single-crystal ferroelectric devices and characterised the physics of domains and domain walls in these systems. He has also contributed significantly to more recent domain wall research on bulk single crystals and single crystal thin films. Expanding upon and diversifying this theme, his current research focuses on the thermal properties of ferroic domain walls: his UKRI fellowship (~£950k awarded in 2021) is to develop his own dedicated laboratory and research group in this area. Previously, he was awarded a Japan Trust International Research Cooperation Program Fellowship to perform research at Fujitsu Laboratories Japan, where his expertise in ferroelectrics was leveraged as part of their Next Generation Materials Project. He has authored >20 peer reviewed articles with many of them appearing in high-impact journals such as Nano Letters, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters and Advanced Materials. He has also presented >10 invited talks at leading conferences over the last decade. He was a member of the organising committee for international conferences ISIF 2019 and ISAF-ECAPD-PFM 2022.

Dr McQuaid's research group focuses on the functional properties of nanoscale oxide materials, particularly the influence of ferroic microstructure on thermal transport and electrocaloric effects. These studies typically involve use of novel scanning probe microscopy techniques such as Scanning Thermal Microsopy, as well as electrical characterisation and low-temperature measurement setups.

2024 - Present  PHY2001 Statistical Mechanics
2018 - Present  PHY2002 Solid State Physics
2017 - Present  PHY4001 Physics Projects
2018 - 2020      PHY1001 Foundation Physics 
2017 - 2018       MTS7001 Materials Science and Engineering