PhDs in Advanced Thermal Imaging - Science and Technology

Project overview:

A fully funded thermal imaging PhD scholarship with a tax free stipend of £13.8k (with possible additional CASE award) is available to join our research group that consists of four academics, fourteen PhD students and five research associates. You will join the group at an exciting time of growth in both people and facilities. Our Infrared Sensors and Instrumentation Research Centre has secured a five year funding base jointly from EPSRC and Land Instruments International Ltd. in north Derbyshire (part of the Ametek Inc. Corporation). There will be opportunities to focus on both futuristic science and also collaborative R&D with an international company. We also work closely with the National Physical Laboratory, High Value Manufacturing Catapult (AMRC, AFRC, etc), colleagues in Sheffield and at other universities and end users in advanced manufacturing, so there will be many opportunities for stimulating collaborations.

Measuring the temperature of an object without actually touching it is made possible by the fact that everything glows and we can see this glow if the object is hot enough. Even when the glow is invisible to us, it can be measured by electronic instruments and cameras. However, even under lab conditions, these measurements are difficult to make accurately. There are also many scientific discoveries in this field yet to be made. For example, how can we measure the temperature of structures that are close in size or thickness to the wavelength of light? (See page 629 of “Science” from the 6^th of February 2015 for one possible answer.) How can we measure high speed physical phenomena such as the temperature increases due to the flow of large electric currents through semiconductors?  How can we engineer materials to give us the thermal radiative properties we want, such as very high emissivity? 

Project objectives:

We are going to take thermal imaging well beyond the current state of the art. Within the thermal imaging remit, there will be the opportunity to work on a wide range of different topics. The project will focus on improving our understanding of the link between thermal-optical (plasmonic) properties and the other physical properties of advanced and interesting materials, such as aerospace alloys, graphene, liquid crystals and semiconductor structures. It will also be possible to focus on next generation thermal camera electronics, where we will develop sensor systems that measure and map temperature more intelligently, more accurately and at higher speed than has ever been achieved before. We will work closely with infrared detector researchers and investigate new semiconductor materials and structures. This project would suite an engineering or physics graduate with an interest in some or all of the following: semiconductors, electronic circuits/systems, optics, material science and experimental physics.

For more information on this studentship opportunity, please contact Dr Jon Willmott:

Email: j.r.willmott<στο>sheffield.ac.uk

Phone: 0114 222 5436