Faculty

Please visit our group’s website: www.actalab.com

Biography

Rob is an Associate Professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), where he runs the Advanced Chalcogenides Technologies and Applications Lab (www.ACTALab.com). Rob’s research interests are focused on designing chalcogenides and applying them to applications in electronics, photonics, data storage, and biosensing. Prior to joining SUTD Rob received his PhD from from the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, spent 3.5 years at the Japanese national institute for Applied Industrial Science and technology (AIST) as a JSPS postdoctoral fellow, and one year at the Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques (ICFO), Barcelona. Rob’s research has been awarded a number of prizes including the Westminster medal and the AIST best paper award.

Education

• PhD from the Optoelectronics Research Center, University of Southampton, UK (2003-2007)
• MPhys (Master of Physics) degree from the University of Bath, UK, (1998-2002)

Awards and Honours

• 2018 Best Poster, Photonics@SG, Weiling Dong.
• 2018 Institute of Physics, Nano Futures Editors 2017 Highlight
• 2017 Nominee for Poster Prize, MRS Spring Meeting, Weiling Dong
• 2017 MRS Poster Prize, MRS Spring Meeting, Xilin Zhou.
• 2014 Best Academic paper from the Japanese National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• 2012 Academic poster nominated for Materials Research Symposium prize
• 2011 Marie Curie COFUND Fellowship
• 2008 Best Academic Paper (co-author)  at the Optical Data Storage Conference
• 2008 Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2007 IET Electronics Letters, Letter of the Month
• 2006 Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Summer Scholarship
• 2005 Westminster Medal

Research Interests

• Chalcogenides
• Materials Design Methodologies
• Crystal Nanostructure Design
• Phase Change Memory
• Photonics
• Programmable materials
• Materials Design

Representative journal publications are listed below. A complete list of publications can be found here.

• X. Zhou, Janne Kalikka, Xinglong Ji, Liangcai Wu, Zhitang Song, Robert E Simpson, Phase-Change Memory Materials by Design: A Strain Engineering Approach, Advanced Materials10.1002/adma.201505865, 2016
• Lutz Waldecker, Timothy A Miller, Miquel Rudé, Roman Bertoni, Johann Osmond, Valerio Pruneri, Robert E Simpson, Ralph Ernstorfer, Simon Wall, Time-domain separation of optical properties from structural transitions in resonantly bonded materials, Nature Materials, 14,991–995(2015)
• Miquel Rudé, Robert E Simpson, Romain Quidant, Valerio Pruneri, Jan Renger, Active Control of Surface Plasmon Waveguides with a Phase Change Material, 2(6), 2015
• Paul Fons, Peter Rodenbach, Kirill V Mitrofanov, Alexander V Kolobov, Junji Tominaga, Roman Shayduk, Alessandro Giussani, Raffaella Calarco, Michael Hanke, Henning Riechert, Robert E Simpson, Muneaki Hase, Picosecond strain dynamics in Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 monitored by time-resolved x-ray diffraction, Phys Rev B, 90(9) 094305, 2014
• X Zhou, W Dong, H Zhang, R E Simpson, A zero density change phase change memory material: GeTe-O structural characteristics upon crystallisation, Scientific Reports, 5, Article number: 11150, 2015
• T Cao, L Zhang, RE Simpson, MJ Cryan, Mid-infrared tunable polarization-independent perfect absorber using a phase-change metamaterial, 30(6) 1580-1585, 2013
• T Cao, C Wei, RE Simpson, L Zhang, MJ Cryan. Fast tuning of double Fano resonance using a phase-change metamaterial under low power intensity, Scientific Reports, 4, 4463, 2014
• Chung-Che Huang, Feras Al-Saab, Yudong Wang, Jun-Yu Ou, John C Walker, Shuncai Wang, Behrad Gholipour, Robert E Simpson, Daniel W Hewak, Scalable high-mobility MoS 2 thin films fabricated by an atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition process at ambient temperature, 6(21) 12792-12797, 2014
• Miquel Rudé, Josselin Pello, Robert E Simpson, Johann Osmond, Gunther Roelkens, Jos JGM van der Tol, Valerio Pruneri, Optical switching at 1.55 μm in silicon racetrack resonators using phase change materials, 103(14), 141119, 2013
• R. E. Simpson, P. Fons, A. Kolobov, M. Krbal, and J. Tominaga. Enhanced crystallization of GeTe from an Sb2Te3 template. Applied Physics Letters, 100(2), 2012.
• R. E. Simpson, P. Fons, A. Kolobov, T. Fukaya, M. Krbal, T. Yagi, and J. Tominaga. Interfacial phase- change memory. Nature Nanotechnology, 6(8), 2011.
• R. E. Simpson, P. Fons, A. Kolobov, M. Krbal, and J. Tominaga. Seeded crystallisation and enhanced phase-change materials. MRS, 2010.
• R. E. Simpson, P. Fons, X. Wang, A. Kolobov, T. Fukaya, and J. Tominaga. Non-melting super-resolution near-field apertures in Sb–Te alloys. Applied Physics Letters, 97, 2010.
• R. E. Simpson, M. Krbal, P. Fons, A. Kolobov, T. Uruga, H. Tanida, and J. Tominaga. Stress limited scaling of Ge2Sb2Te5. MRS Proceedings, 1251(1), 2010.
• R. E. Simpson, M. Krbal, P. Fons, A. Kolobov, J. Tominaga, T. Uruga, and H. Tanida. Toward the ultimate limit of phase change in Ge2Sb2Te5. Nano letters, 10(2), 2009.
• R. E. Simpson, P. Fons, A. Kolobov, M. Kuwahara, and J. Tominaga. Crystallization of Bi doped Sb8Te2. Jpn J Appl Phys, 48(3), 2009.
• R. E. Simpson, D. Hewak, P. Fons, J. Tominaga, S. Guerin, and B. Hayden. Reduction in crystallization time of Sb: Te films through addition of bi. Applied Physics Letters, 92(14), 2008.
• R. E. Simpson. Chalcogenide thin film materials for next generation data storage. PhD thesis, University of Southampton, 2008.
• R. E. Simpson, A. Mairaj, C. Huang, K. Knight, N. Sessions, M. Hassan, D. Hewak, and R. Curry. Electrical phase change of Ga: La: S: Cu films. Electronics Letters, 43(15), 2007.