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Department of Physics

Materials Physics Doctorate

The Materials Physics Doctorate is undertaken by a substantial cohort of research students studying in the broad area of condensed matter and materials physics. Master's degree projects (MSc by Research) are also available. Materials Physics students work largely, but not exclusively, within the Condensed Matter Physics and Theoretical Physics research clusters. Most involve multiple experimental and theoretical techniques spread across, Physics research groups, Research Techology Platforms and central facilities such as SuperSTEM, ISIS, Central Laser Facility and Diamond Light Source.

You can get an idea of the kind of cross-disciplinary projects undertaken by many Materials Physics students from our Case Studies.

The course is coordinated by Dr. Gavin Bell with PhD progress monitored through the Department's standard regulations and overseen by the Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. James Lloyd-Hughes.

The Materials Physics Doctorate offers:
  • Tailored research degree progress monitoring to account for multi-technique and cross-disciplinary work.
  • Hands-on support and technique-specific training to help you exploit both our own outstanding computational, materials growth / fabrication and analytical capabilities, and those at central facilities such as XMaS.
  • Broad education in Materials Physics through dedicated Midlands Physics Alliance Graduate School courses and external courses.
  • Opportunities for further funding, collaboration and interdisciplinary research within the University, e.g. via the Materials GRP and Centre for Scientific Computing.
  • External training events such as European workshops in computational techniques and central facility-led training in experimental methods.
  • Guidance and training on careers and transferable skills including both Warwick-based and external courses and events.
  • Opportunity for an industrial placement during your PhD.

Warwick Materials Physics Capabilities

  • X-ray Diffraction [powder XRD, single crystal XRD, high resolution XRD] *
  • X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy [XPS, imaging XPS, Ultra-violet Photoemission Spectroscopy (UPS), Kelvin Probe, ARPES]
  • Microscopy [Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), light microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM)] *
  • Single Crystal Growth
  • Thin Film Epitaxy (MBE, PLD, CVD)
  • Electrical Characterisation
  • Magnetometry and physical property measurements
  • Materials property calculation from first principles
  • Device fabrication and clean room (Engineering)
  • Optical spectroscopy (FTIR, Raman and UV-Vis)
  • Ultrafast spectroscopy (UV, visible, infrared and terahertz)
  • Scientific Computing *

* capabilities wholly or partly organised through a Research Technology Platform

Projects available

The following PhD projects are available, with full funding for 3.5 years for UK and exceptional EU applicants. The nominal start date is the beginning of October 2019. For more details see the Physics Graduate Admissions web pages.