thin films PhD Projects, Programs & Scholarships

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

The hydrogen economy, the use of hydrogen as a clean fuel, is under development as a part of the future low-carbon economy. An important part of this is the efficient and cheap production of hydrogen.

Photocatalytic Thin Films: probing the early antibacterial properties of metallic thin films

University of Sheffield
Department of Chemistry

Dr A Chauvet

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Have you ever wondered about self-cleaning surfaces. an object that cleanse itself just by shining light on it? Such technology already exists, and the field is fast developing.

Mapping oxidation state and crystallisation dynamics in metal oxide thin films for catalysts and energy storage devices

Queensland University of Technology
Centre for Materials Science

Prof A O'Mullane, Dr M Jones

Application Deadline: 30 September 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but potential funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Understanding the heterogeneous chemical and structural changes that occur in thin metal oxide films when used as catalysts for water splitting to produce hydrogen is critical for the development of more efficient materials.

Exposing the nanoscale ultrafast dynamics of Dirac systems via near-field terahertz spectroscopy

The University of Manchester
Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Dr J Boland

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached for UK and EU students, though the amount may depend on your nationality. Non-EU students may still be able to apply for the project provided they can find separate funding. You should check the project and department details for more information.

To create energy-efficient, faster ’21st century devices’ that can impact a range of sectors, including healthcare, wireless communication, defence, security and clean energy, integrated photonic, electronic and quantum technologies are essential.

Marie Sklodowska–Curie Innovative Training Network Early Stage Researcher on the development of chiral optoelectronic devices

Imperial College London
Faculty of Natural Sciences

Prof A Campbell, Prof M Fuchter

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached for UK and EU students, though the amount may depend on your nationality. Non-EU students may still be able to apply for the project provided they can find separate funding. You should check the project and department details for more information.

An H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions funded PhD studentship position in organic chiral optoelectronic devices is available in the Department of Physics at Imperial College, London.

Size effects in pure and alloyed metals under dynamic loading

University of Birmingham
School of Metallurgy & Materials

Dr B. Gurrutxaga-Lerma

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This research project has funding attached. It is only available to UK citizens or those who have been resident in the UK for a period of 3 years or more. Some projects, which are funded by charities or by the universities themselves may have more stringent restrictions.

The strength of metals and metallic alloys is usually thought to be independent of the system’s geometry and dimensions. However, at the micron scale this ceases to be true.

Spin Waves Dynamics for Spintronic Computational Devices

The University of Manchester
Department of Computer Science

Prof T Thomson

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but potential funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Spin waves (magnons) are fundamental excitations found in magnetically ordered materials. Recently spin wave phenomena have been proposed as a new paradigm for dedicated computational tasks due to the inherently low energy of this type of excitation.

Nanostructure enabled extreme light-matter interactions

University of Bath
Department of Physics

Dr S Andrews

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

The University of Bath is inviting applications for the following PhD project supervised by Dr Steven Andrews https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/steven-andrews in the Department of Physics.

University of Southampton
Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Oxide Spintronics

Research Group: Electronic Materials & Devices

Prof T Prodromakis

Application Deadline: 31 August 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities.

Supervisor. Professor Themis Prodromakis. Co-supervisor Dr Mari Napari. Project description.

Dynamic wavefront engineering via epsilon-near-zero nonlinearities (EPS2020/20)

Heriot-Watt University
School of Engineering & Physical Sciences

Dr M Ferrera

Application Deadline: 31 May 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached for UK and EU students, though the amount may depend on your nationality. Non-EU students may still be able to apply for the project provided they can find separate funding. You should check the project and department details for more information.

By exploiting the remarkable nonlinearities of bulk and nanostructured thin films operating in their epsilon-near-zero frequency window, different device configuration will be explored for the efficient and ultra-fast manipulation of the optical wavefront.

Thermoelectric Metal-Organic Frameworks: Design, Synthesis and Assessment

Queen Mary University of London
School of Engineering and Materials Science

Dr P Szilagyi

Application Deadline: 31 May 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This research project has funding attached. It is only available to UK citizens or those who have been resident in the UK for a period of 3 years or more. Some projects, which are funded by charities or by the universities themselves may have more stringent restrictions.

Thermoelectric materials are of great interest for energy research as they can convert waste heat into electricity.

Nanomaterials as White Light Emitters for Low Cost Lighting

University of Bradford
Faculty of Life Sciences

Research Group: Chemistry and Biosciences

Dr S Hickey, Dr W Martin

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

White-light emission (WLE) from semiconductor nanostructures is presently a research area of intense interest especially where the primary objective is to replace conventional light sources by environmentally friendly materials in order to minimize energy costs and therefore the global energy consumption for lighting.

Optically active molecular nanostructures

University of Graz
Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

Prof S Kowarik

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

In this project molecular nanostructures for specific applications in biomedical sensing and optoelectronics will be studied. Therefore, atomic scale details of the molecular arrangement and the relationship between supramolecular structure and optical properties are investigated.

Van der Waals heterostructures for valley and spintronics

University of Liverpool
Department of Physics

Prof Y L Chueh, Dr L O'Brien

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

This project is part of a 4-year Dual PhD degree programme between the National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) and the University of Liverpool (England).

Metal-organic nanosheets (MONs): Programmable 2D materials for use as sensors, catalysts, membranes and devices

University of Sheffield
Department of Chemistry

Dr J Foster

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Two-dimensional nanomaterials such as graphene hold enormous potential for use in advanced electronics, energy, separation and composite materials applications.