Publications
The below list of publications should be up to date. Find me Google Scholar for more information.
Summary: A method for calculating the emmission spectra of spin-active quantum defects in materials is developed using a combintation of quantum embedding theories and quantum phase estimation.
Summary: We introduce a Pythonic playground for experimentation with exchange & correlation functionals in DFT based on neural networks. Check out the code.
Summary: We propose a nomenclature for classifying quantum-quantum, classical-classical and quantum-classical multiple kernel learning and conduct a series of numerical experiments. We introduce a new neural network architecture - quantum-classical-convex neural networks (QCC-nets) - which are able to train weighted combinations of parameterized classical and quantum kernels for any kernelized learning task.
Summary: A trainable time-dependent inner product space is devised using time evolution operators from quantum mechanics. We use this inner product space to define a time-series Hamiltonian kernel function, which, alongside classical SVM, we use to classify time-series on 127 qubit superconducting transmon chips. We speed up the algorithm by computing the kernel matrices in parallel using many quantum threads spread throughout the chip.
Summary: We find experimental evidence for a new low temperature phase transition to a polar state in the purported archetypal antiferroelectric PbZrO3.
Summary: Hybrid DFT caclulations show there exist certain strains where the dielectric constant of BaTiO3 is enhanced by a zone-centre phonon mode.
Summary: We develop a new binary objective function for representative selection and use it to perform portfolio diversification and index reconstruction using D-Wave quantum annealers.
Summary: A new quantum machine learning algorithm for time series anomaly detection is developed and used on superconducting transmon quantum hardware with advanced error mitigation.
Summary: We explore a new way of looking at the quality of solutions from approximate optimizations algorithms like the QAOA and quantum annealing using Wasserstein distances. We use this new metric to benchmark the performance of several superconducting transmon and trapped ion quantum computers.
Summary: Surprisingly, the long-standing antiferroelectric groundstates of PbZrO3 and PbHfO3 are each found with an unstable phonon mode at 0K. The displacement pattern of this mode informs a new lower symmetry structure whoose energy is lower (according to DFT) than the presently supposed ground state.
J. S. Baker and D. R. Bowler, Origin of ferroelectric domain wall alignment with surface trenches in ultrathin films, Physical Review Letters 127 247601 (2021).
Summary: We reveal the microscopic mechanism responsible for how ferroelectric domain walls align with surface trenches in ferroelectric films. We use large scale DFT calculations with thousands of atoms and thousands of physical cores using the UK national supercomputer: ARCHER2.
Summary: Large scale DFT simulations are used to investigate polar vortices and polar waves in thin ferroelectric films. We find that asymmetrical polar textures can arise from broken inversion symmetries.
Summary: A review of the large scale DFT code: CONQUEST. The theory behind the code is divulged and recent use cases are presented.
Summary: Using a selection of technologically relevant ferroelectric and antiferroelectric perovskite oxides, we study the suitability of DFT simulations using pseudoatomic orbital basis sets to describe their properties.
Summary: My Ph.D. thesis. I studied long range behaviour in ferroelectric and antiferroelectric perovskite oxides using conventional and large scale DFT simulations. Systems of interest include bulk PZT, PbZrO3, PbHfO3 and thin films of PbTiO3. New emergent behviours were found including exotic polarization textures, new complex low energy structures in PbZrO3 and uncovering the mechanism behind the alignment of ferroelectric domain walls with engineered surface trenches.
Summary: New long wavelength crystal vibrations are found in the industrial piezoelectric PZT using DFT-based phonon calculations. We describe why the popular virtual crystal approximation cannot be used to accurately describe such patterns in PZT and similar materials.
Summary: We develop new heuristic methods for generating reliable basis sets of pseudoatomic orbitals for DFT calculations using CONQUEST. We study the accuracy of these basis sets using several popular materials.
L. K. McKemmish, K. L. Chubb, T. Rivlin, J. S. Baker, M. Gorman, A. Heward, W. Dunn and M.Tessenyi, Bringing pupils into the ORBYTS of research, Astronomy & Geophysics, 58(5), 5-11 (2017).
Summary: The Twinkle ORBYTS team discuss their approach to original research with school-aged scientists.
Summary: The Twinkle ORBYTS team get involved in teaching research skills to school-aged scientists and have them publish articles in peer reviewed journals supervised by Ph.D. students and post-docs.