Alastair McLean

Bio

Dr. Alastair McLean (Physics, Queen’s) is a Professor of Physics where his group uses and develops scanning probe-based experimental techniques to study nanostructure and functional molecules. He earned his Ph.D. with M. Pepper and G. L. Lonzarich at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. He was a post-doctoral fellow with R. H. Williams in Cardiff and also with F. J. Himpsel at IBM Yorktown Heights.

While at IBM Yorktown Heights, he used angle-resolved photo emission to study surface and interface states and at Queen’s he continued these investigations with inverse photoemission. He is a regular visitor to the University of Regensburg to the group of Jascha Repp (Lehrstuhl Giessibl), where he has used Kelvin probe force microscopy with a qPlus sensor (invented by Franz Giessibl) to perform studies of luminescent molecules at cryogenic temperature. His group, in collaboration with the Jelinek group at the Academy of Sciences in Prague, have recently developed new methods for sensing the conformation of molecules using combined STM/AFM with a qPlus sensor. A recent collaboration with C. M. Crudden (Queen’s Chemistry) has produced publications in Nature Chemistry (2014) and Nature Communications (2016). Dr. McLean was also a co-PI on a recent successful Queen’s Chemistry-Physics CFI proposal (A Molecular Approach to Surface Functionalisation: From Automotive to Biomedical Applications) led by C. M. Crudden. Since 2007, he has been a F.Inst.P, U.K. 

Dr. McLean contributes his expertise in scanning probe microscopy to the Nanophotonics Research Center; Cavity QED with Localized Plasmons. He is responsible for the Unisoku scanning probe and collaborates closely with Stamplecoskie, Fraser, Nunzi  who are experts in optics, to perform studies of backaction-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. He is also involved in the research thrust in Quantum Optomechanics, contributing expertise in instrumentation design and manufacture. He brings to Nanophotonics Research Center, a strong collaborations with theory groups in Brazil (R. H. Miwa, U. of Uberlandia), Prague (P. Jelinek and H. Vazquez, Institute of Physics, Czech. Academy of Sciences) and the United Kingdom (G. P. Srivastava, U. of Exeter).

Publications