Cardiff School of Engineering: New Adaptive Electronic Materials (PhD Studentship)
Reference Number: R682
Project Description
This interdisciplinary project is a continuation of the successful collaboration with Merck KGaA in Darmstadt. Merck produce high performance electronic materials in the form of very thin (around 50 nm) coatings of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) on dielectric substrates. These materials are either in powder or thin film form, and are used in a variety of applications, e.g. for “metallic” paints as a result of their unique optical properties, and for electrostatic coatings.
A current PhD project sponsored by Merck has developed novel types of microwave characterisation methods for these materials, together with fundamental microscopic models for the electronic behaviour. The pigments division at Merck has a replica set of microwave characterisation tools developed by Prof. Porch in the HF Engineering group at Cardiff, meaning that quick materials optimisations can be achieved, advised by the HF group at Cardiff.
This new project will take these studies into a new domain where the materials are excited by external means, i.e. light, heat or electric field. The resulting nonlinear properties could lead to new industrial applications, e.g. very effective radar absorbers with tuned absorption properties.
The successful candidate will be expected to visit Merck for up to 6 weeks per year and attend the annual Merck Student Conference.
Supervisors: Prof. A Porch and Dr R Perks.
Funding information
The awards include full UK/EU tuition fees plus a doctoral stipend matching the UK Research Council National Minimum
Eligibility
Academic Criteria: Applicants should hold or expect to gain an undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline (2.1 or 1st class honours) and/or an appropriate Masters level qualification.
Eligibility: Full awards are open to UK Nationals, and EU students who can satisfy UK residency requirements. To be eligible for the full award, EU Nationals must have been in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the course for which they are seeking funding, including for the purposes of full-time education. EU Nationals who do not meet the above residency requirement are eligible for a fees-only award, provided that they have been ordinarily resident in the EU for at least 3 years prior to the start of their proposed programme of study.
How to Apply
Consideration for the funding award is automatic on applying for postgraduate study. Applications can be submitted through our online application service.
PLEASE ENSURE THE STUDENTSHIP REFERENCE AP-DTG-2011 IS QUOTED ON YOUR APPLICATION (please put reference in the “Prospective Supervisor” section)
Application Deadline: open until position filled
Further Information
For further details please contactProf Adrian Porch: PorchA@cardiff.ac.uk or +44(0)29 2087 5954
You might be interested in looking at the School of Engineering website, too.
Available to applicants from:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Channel Islands, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Wales
