Rupert Mellor

Nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS)

Micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) are well established in consumer products and industry, demand for increased complexity, speed and performance is driving size reduction towards Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS). NEMS is a new key disruptive technology providing potential solutions to industry to a range of technological barriers over a wide spread of sectors, from ICT through physical sensors to biological sensor applications. As the dimensions of devices and structures reduce, new technologies and approaches are required.

At Royal Holloway progress has been made on combining nanofabricated superconducting NEMs devices with novel SQUID readout systems, operated on low temperature platforms. Resonators with quality factors of order 1 million at 1 K and with a resonant frequency of order 1 MHz have been studied. This project seeks to extend these capabilities by focussing on developing novel higher frequency, high performance nanoscale mechanical resonators, aimed at both metrology and fundamental physics applications including ultra-sensitive mass, force, displacement and temperature sensing at the nanoscale.

Graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London with an MSci in Physics in 2014

PhD Graduate with experience in cryogenics and quantum technologies, after completing his PhD Rupert started training as a Patent Attorney.