David Burn

Current Research Interests

David has research interests which are based around quantum and magnetic materials. These materials have quantum effects which take place at the atomic scale resulting in interesting properties in the materials which appear in the macroscale. Examples of these are topologically rich magnetic materials which contain a variety of spin structures. These systems show interesting behaviour with external factors such as electric or magnetic fields, electrical currents, temperature and strain. Along with the ability to manipulate this behaviour of these with patterning and structuring, David has a keen interest in understanding the dynamic behaviour of these systems, how they respond to excitation in both the time and frequency domain. As well as the importance of this research for fundamental scientific understanding relating to quantum materials, these materials have great potential for the basis of novel technological devices, for example the next generation of computer memory or processing technologies. Furthermore, David has a keen interest in the development of scientific instrument, exploring and developing new techniques to probe materials to the next level.

Biography

David studied physics Durham university for both his undergraduate and PhD studies. His thesis was based on the manipulation of domain walls and the investigation of their dynamics in magnetic nanostructures. After his PhD, David was a post-doctoral research associate at Imperial College London working in the functional magnetism group. He continued to do research in magnetization dynamics exploring the behaviour of domain walls and topological magnetic defects in nanopatterned devices.

David joined Diamond Light Source as a post-doctoral research associate on the I10 beamline in 2015 with research into current induced manipulation of magnetic structures and the development of time resolved techniques. In 2017 He moved to the group of Gerrit van der Laan and developed x-ray ferromagnetic resonance measurements in combination with reflectivity and diffraction. His scientific interests focussed on the behaviour of chiral and topologically rich magnetic spin textures including skyrmion systems and topological insulators, with a keen interest in the dynamic behaviour of these systems.

In 2022 David moved on to become the Principal Beamline Scientist for the Coherent Soft X-ray Imaging and Diffraction (CSXID) beamline. In this role, David is responsible for the development of this beamline which is one of the flagship beamlines as part of the Diamond-II upgrade. The beamline will be available for users from January 2030.