Dr James Gates

Dr James C. Gates is a Principal Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. He has over 25 years of experience in photonic engineering, fabrication and material science and specialises in the fabrication of quantum technology and photonic systems. James has co-authored over 100 journal publications, 250 conference submissions and three patent families. He leads a team fabricating and developing integrated photonics, ultra-precision diamond machining and non-linear optical devices. This work mainly develops proprietary fabrication techniques, including flame hydrolysis glass deposition, air-bearing stabilised laser inscription, and ultra-precision milling. These techniques have led to applications in diverse areas, including drug production monitoring, telecommunications, aviation sensing and quantum computing.

Since 2016, James has been heavily involved in developing quantum technologies. Initially, this focussed on developing low-loss optical waveguide systems for photonic quantum computing. But over the past decade, this has expanded to Superconducting, Ion and Atom trap systems for quantum computing and sensing - concentrating on the fabrication and manufacturing challenges the quantum technology industry faces.  

James led early investigations into ultraprecision machining of optical structures at the ORC that led to the establishment of a world-class suite of machining technologies for academic and commercial processing. James has been an investigator on over £100m of research grants, academic and industrial (both as PI and Co-I). He is the PI of the EPSRC-funded project UPROAR, a Co-I of the EPSRC Hub in Quantum Computing and Simulation and Innovate UK's QT ASSEMBLE. He was also previously Co-I (post-award) on two of the previous EPSRC QT Hubs.

Prizes

• Research group award: Highly Commended (2017)
• Vice Chancellor's Award (2012)