Dr. Stewart McWilliams

- Position:
-
Reader
- Research Theme:
- Condensed Matter and Photonics
- Research Groups:
- Hard Condensed Matter, Soft Matter, Statistical Physics and Biophysics
- Institution:
- Edinburgh
- Email address:
- rs.mcwilliams@ed.ac.uk
- Website:
- http://www.csec.ed.ac.uk/members/dr-stewart-mcwilliams
- Telephone number:
- +44 (0)131 651 7771
- Address:
- School of Physics and Astronomy, James Clerk Maxwell Building, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FD, United Kingdom
Research interests
I study high pressure and high temperature states of matter in the laboratory to address questions of scientific and technological interest. I am interested in materials relevant to natural systems such as planetary interiors and to technologies such as energetic materials and inertial confinement fusion. I develop and use ultrafast methods to create, sustain, and study extreme states. These techniques use the diamond-anvil cell (static compression) and laser-driven shock compression (dynamic compression) to generate particular extreme states. I visit facilities worldwide for access to high power laser systems, synchrotron radiation, and other special instrumentation. I characterize fundamental material properties including strength, elastic moduli, optical properties, and melting points and examine how extreme conditions can be used to synthesize new materials.
Research outputs
- Femtosecond diffraction studies of solid and liquid phase changes in shock-compressed bismuth DOI, Scientific Reports (2018)
- Insulator-metal transition in dense fluid deuterium DOI, Science, 361, 6403 , p. 677-682 (2018)
- Metallization and molecular dissociation of dense fluid nitrogen DOI, Nature Communications (2018)
- Finite element modeling of melting and fluid flow in the laser-heated diamond-anvil DOI, Journal of Applied Physics, 121, p. 145904-145901 (2017)
- Ultrafast X-Ray Diffraction Studies of the Phase Transitions and Equation of State of Scandium Shock Compressed to 82 GPa DOI, Physical Review Letters, 118, 2 (2017)
- Optical properties of fluid hydrogen at the transition to a conducting state DOI, Physical Review Letters, 116, 25 (2016)
- Direct measurement of thermal conductivity in solid iron at planetary core conditions DOI, Nature, 534, 7605 , p. 99-101 (2016)
- Opacity and conductivity measurements in noble gases at conditions of planetary and stellar interiors DOI, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, 26 , p. 201421801 (2015)
- A flash heating method for measuring thermal conductivity at high pressure and temperature: application to Pt DOI, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors (2015)
- Phase Transformations and Metallization of Magnesium Oxide at High Pressure and Temperature DOI, Science, 338, 6112 , p. 1330-1333 (2012)