DrDaan Arroo

Daan Arroo is an Assistant Professor in Materials for Quantum Technologies at Imperial College London. He obtained an MPhys in Physics from Durham University before completing a PhD in Imperial’s Blackett Laboratory on the high-frequency dynamics of ferromagnetic nanostructures. He subsequently worked as a Research Associate at University College London, investigating so-called “spin ice” materials (whose elementary excitations behave like magnetic charge carriers) for spintronic applications. Daan returned to Imperial in 2021 as a postdoctoral researcher in diamond quantum electronics and joined the academic faculty in the Department of Materials in 2025.

A recurring theme throughout his research is the study of spin systems that closely realise tractable physical models. Because their microscopic behaviour is unusually well understood, these systems provide both testbeds for fundamental physics and foundations for deliberately engineered technologies. His current work applies this approach to optically addressable spin defects in diamond and other wide-bandgap semiconductors, with the aim of developing new quantum sensors and microwave devices.

His current focus is on diamond masers: solid-state devices that offer a route towards quantum-limited microwave amplification with potential applications in communications, radar and quantum computing.