An Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in Diffraction Analysis for Particle Sizing (Malvern Instruments)

Engineering Doctorate (EngD)- The EngD is an alternative to a traditional PhD aimed at students wanting a career in industry. Students spend about 75% of their time working directly with a company in addition to receiving advanced-level training from a broad portfolio of technical and business courses. On completion students are awarded the PhD-equivalent EngD.

The use of laser diffraction to measure a particle size distribution (PSD) is a mature technique that relies on the solution of an ill-posed problem. To calculating a PSD an m×n scattering matrix is generated using an appropriate scattering theory approximation. The measured scattering data provides the right hand side of the matrix problem, the solution of which gives the PSD. The solution of this problem in the next generation of instrument requires two areas of study. Firstly, the suppression of background artifacts in the right hand side of the ill-posed problem will help calculate a more accurate PSD. A recent development at Malvern has suggested that scattering pattern symmetry holds information which can allow scattering source identification. Methods for leveraging this information to both suppress unwanted artifacts and correct the parameters used in the matrix generating approximations should be developed. Secondly, the approximations by which the matrix is generated will be investigated. Currently, Mie’s solution or the Fraunhofer approximation are used, adding a T-Matrix approach may allow more accurate PSDs for aspherical particles, for example. Comparing these approximations for particles with a wide range of optical properties and multiple scattering events.

Skills and Knowledge
•Numerical programming experience with scripted and compiled languages. For example, at Malvern Instruments we use either Matlab or Python’s numerical libraries for modeling and our numerical software is written with C++ and C#, though it is not essential that candidate is familiar with these languages.
•Some familiarity with mathematical modelling of electrodynamic systems would be required. Experience with solving scattering problems would be useful, perhaps a project of this type as part of a first degree.
•Some optics experience would be beneficial but not required.
•The ability to communicate sophisticate specialist ides to a technical audience with a wide variety of specialisms.

Sponsor Company: Malvern Instruments
The successful applicant will become a student of the University of St. Andrews where the project supervisor Dr. Andrea Di Falco is based.