Quantum Detectors

Last updated
Quantum Detectors
Private
Industry Synchrotron and university science
Founded2007
Headquarters Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, UK
ProductsXspress 3, Zebra, V2F100, Merlin
Website www.quantumdetectors.com

Quantum Detectors Limited is a spin-out company from the Diamond Light Source and Science and Technology Facilities Council, [1] although it also commercialises technology from other large scale facilities such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. [2] The function of the company is to take to market developments that would otherwise only be used by the funders of the development; this wider use of these new technologies benefits the scientific community through improved facilities and the developer through aiding them in meeting their impact / knowledge transfer obligations. [3] [4] [5]

Diamond Light Source UKs national synchrotron science facility located in Oxfordshire

Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. Its purpose is to produce intense beams of light whose special characteristics are useful in many areas of scientific research. In particular it can be used to investigate the structure and properties of a wide range of materials from proteins, and engineering components to conservation of archeological artifacts.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a UK government body that carries out civil research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astronomy.

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is a joint research facility situated in Grenoble, France, and supported by 22 countries.

Contents

Quantum Detectors is based at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus [6] close to the city of Oxford in the United Kingdom (UK). The company was founded in 2007 [7] and is privately owned by Diamond Light Source Ltd. and The Science and Technology Facilities council commercial arm, STFC Innovations Ltd.

Harwell Science and Innovation Campus

The Harwell Science and Innovation Campus is a science and technology campus near the villages of Harwell and Chilton, Oxfordshire, England. The site is 2 miles (3 km) outside Didcot, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Oxford and roughly 6 miles (10 km) east of Wantage. A large part of the site was formerly the main research establishment of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, but it has seen a transition to its new role as a science and business park as the nuclear facilities have been decommissioned.

Oxford City and non-metropolitan district in England

Oxford is a university city in south central England and the county town of Oxfordshire. With a population of approximately 155,000, it is the 52nd largest city in the United Kingdom, with one of the fastest growing populations in the UK, and it remains the most ethnically diverse area in Oxfordshire county. The city is 51 miles (82 km) from London, 61 miles (98 km) from Bristol, 59 miles (95 km) from Southampton, 57 miles (92 km) from Birmingham and 24 miles (39 km) from Reading.

United Kingdom Country in Europe

The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

History

Quantum Detectors was originally a spin out from the Synchrotron Radiation Source at Daresbury. The SRS being one of the first synchrotrons used for beamline users, [8] there were few detectors available during its early years, requiring development of new systems for each application where commercial solutions were not available. This led to a number of novel detector systems, some of which were sold by the operator of the SRS to other facilities internationally, such as the ESRF, [9] SPring-8 [10] and the Photon Factory. [11] These detectors included Xspress, XSTRIP and RAPID, updated versions of which can all be found at the Diamond Light Source today.

A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, or starburst, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business.

Synchrotron Radiation Source

The Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, England was the first second-generation synchrotron radiation source to produce X-rays. The research facility provided synchrotron radiation to a large number of experimental stations and had an operating cost of approximately £20 million per annum.

SPring-8

SPring-8 is a synchrotron radiation facility located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, which was developed jointly by RIKEN and the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. It is owned and managed by RIKEN, and run under commission by the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute. The machine consists of a storage ring containing an 8 GeV electron beam. On its path around the storage ring, the beam passes through insertion devices to produce synchrotron radiation with energies ranging from soft X-rays up to hard X-rays. The synchrotron radiation produced at SPring-8 is used for materials analysis and biochemical protein characterization by many Japanese manufacturers and universities.

Given the history of the Detector Group at Daresbury to develop detectors with a demand around the globe, spinning out a company to optimise this process was a logical step. The company was thought up independently a number of times by people in the management at Daresbury, but finally in 2005 the company was incorporated and domain name purchased and in 2007 the project was funded, in mid 2008 it gained the first employee.

Diamond opened in January 2007 and the SRS closed in August 2008, leading to the relocation of Quantum Detectors to Harwell to stay with the UK's Synchrotron Facility. 10% of Quantum Detectors shares were then purchased by Diamond, who then elected a Director to the Quantum Detectors Board. The remaining 90% of the shares belong to STFC.

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DESY physics research institute in Hamburg, Germany

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ISIS neutron source

ISIS Neutron and Muon Source is a pulsed neutron and muon source. It is situated at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It uses the techniques of muon spectroscopy and neutron scattering to probe the structure and dynamics of condensed matter on a microscopic scale ranging from the subatomic to the macromolecular.

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References

  1. ↑ "STFC Spinouts". STFC. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  2. ↑ "V2F100 Page". QuantumDetectors.com. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  3. ↑ "Diamond Annual Review 2015". Diamond. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  4. ↑ "Graham Dennis". Diamond. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  5. ↑ "Medipix at Diamond". Diamond. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  6. ↑ "Harwell Campus Page". Harwell Campus. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  7. ↑ "Company Check". CompanyCheck.co.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  8. ↑ "X-Ray Data Booklet". X-Ray Data Booklet. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  9. ↑ DUBBLE EXAFS operating Xspress readout
  10. ↑ Status of RAPID at SPring-8
  11. ↑ NW2A with XSTRIP Archived November 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
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