Professor Anthony Phillips

Anthony Phillips

Professor of Physics and Chemistry of Materials
Head of the Condensed Matter Physics Unit

School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
www.qmul.ac.uk/spcs/staff/academics/profiles/aephillips.html
Centre for Experimental and Applied Physics
Centre for Chemical Research
ORCID

Research

barocalorics, structural disorder, neutron scattering, calorimetry, high pressure, crystallography

Interests

I study structural disorder in materials: how it can be measured, understood, and tuned to achieve particular functionality. Recently, I have focused especially on barocaloric materials, which switch between high- and low-entropy states as a function of applied pressure, and can be used as the basis of environmentally friendly solid-state refrigeration. Previous work has included materials with negative coefficients of thermal expansion, which shrink as you heat them up.

My research is both experimental and computational. On the experimental side much of my work takes place at central facilities, particularly neutron sources and synchrotrons. On the computational side I use both ab initio and empirical-potential modelling.

I am also interested in the mathematical and computational problems that often arise in structural studies. These include problems of statistical inference (does an experimental data set provide sufficient evidence to posit a subtle structural change?), group-theoretical analysis of symmetry changes at phase transitions, and challenges associated with navigating a complex, multi-dimensional phase space when establishing a structural model and refining it against either experimental or computed data.