Find a supervisor and develop your own project or choose one of our academic-led projects listed below. See further information on the application process and available support from the Doctoral College.

See our available projects on FindaPhD

• Low energy excitations in quantum materials studied by tuneable infrared pulses in Tr-ARPES

Supervisor: Dr Enrico Da Como

• Rubidium-filled hollow-core optical fibre for integrated quantum technologies

Supervisors: Dr Kristina Rusimova, Dr Peter Mosley, Dr Daniel Gilks (BT)

• Extending the spectrum of simulation-based modelling of gamma-ray burst afterglows

Supervisors: Dr Hendrik van Eerten, Dr Patricia Schady

• Connecting black hole driven outflows, obscuration and galaxy mergers – A hunt for young accreting black holes

Supervisors: Dr Carolin Villforth, Prof Stijn Wuyts

• Nuclear Pasta and Neutron Star Dynamics

Supervisors: Dr David Tsang, Dr Hendrik van Eerten

• Manipulating the Electronic Properties of Graphene with Ionic Liquids

This project focusses on doping graphene materials with ionic liquids to reach high carrier densities and ultimately, finding new electronic states which have thus far only been predicted theoretically.

Supervisors: Dr Sara Dale, Dr Marcin Mucha-Kruczynski

• Novel 2D materials as building blocks for spintronics and quantum computation

This project focuses on classes of 2D materials that exhibit unconventional magnetism, originating from magnetic frustration, which is the result of competing exchange interactions that cannot all be satisfied at the same time.

Supervisors: Dr Adelina Ilie, Dr Kei Takashina, Prof Alain Nogaret

• Polymorphic Charge Density Waves: a route towards next generation memories

In this project we aim at recruiting a PhD candidate who will explore and master the understanding of the electronic structure in Tantalum dichalcogenides: TaS2, TaSe2 in their different polymorphic structures and also in the mixed compound TaS2-xSe_x.

Supervisors: Dr Enrico Da Como, Dr Simon Crampin

• Topological and nonlinear phononics in van der Waals materials

This project aims to develop theoretical and computational models for characterizing topological (or chiral) phonons in 2D and quasi-1D van der Waals materials like graphene and transition metal chalcogenides.

Supervisors: Dr Habib Rostami, Prof. Alison Walker

• Shining light on single molecule dynamics

This project will tackle the challenge of achieving control over single-molecule reactions by using an STM to characterise individual these reactions, understand why different outcomes occur, and eventually cause entirely new reactions to happen.

Supervisors: Dr Kristina Rusimova, Dr Peter Sloan

• Frequency comb generation in microresonators

This project aims to validate experimentally new approaches to generating frequency combs in microresonators through extending the range of material platforms the microresonators are made from.

Supervisors: Prof Dmitry Skryabin, Prof William Wadsworth

• Dynamic subcellular analysis of novel integrative biomaterials

This interdisciplinary project focuses on the design and characterisation of de novo peptide-based biomaterials for improved tissue integration and regeneration, using cutting-edge imaging tools to quantify cellular behaviours towards building innovative implantable ‘smart’ materials.

Supervisor: Dr Soraya Caixeiro

• Inferring Hidden Ion Channel Properties from Time Series Analysis of Membrane Dynamics

This project will build and implement a novel variational method (Lagrangian data assimilation) to transfer information from time series recordings of the membrane voltage to systems of nonlinear equations (the model) that describe the time evolution of the neuron state.

Supervisor: Prof Alain Nogaret

• Metamaterial-based chiroptical spectroscopy for bio-analysis

Supervisors: Prof Ventsislav Valev, Dr Soraya Caixeiro

• Superconducting Spintronics in van der Waals Heterostructures

In this project we will build on initial developments in superconducting spintronics by exploiting recent breakthroughs in the ‘dry stamping’ of van der Waals heterostructure Josephson junctions. Layers of 2D ferromagnet will be integrated into the barrier regions of these structures to generate long range, parallel spin electron pairs, and realise novel types of very low dissipation electronic devices.

Supervisors: Prof Simon Bending, Prof Daniel Wolverson

• Twisting light and nanostructures with quantum advantage in a cutting-edge laser lab

This project involves ultrashort laser pulses to study nanomaterials of different shape and composition. We aim to build a quantum light source and to discover further new physical effects that will pave the way for nanorobotic and self-assembling meta-materials.

Supervisor: Prof Ventsislav Valev

• Optical fibres for the Vacuum Ultraviolet

Fancy a challenge? Deep in the ultraviolet (below 190 nm wavelength) glass is not transparent, even air absorbs light strongly and mirrors do not reflect light well – so how can it be possible to make an optical fibre to take light round corners?

Supervisor: Prof. William Wadsworth

Find funding for Doctoral research.