Undergraduate Summer Projects
Every year, the School of Physics and Astronomy offers a number of projects with research groups at the school for undergraduate students to take over the summer. The projects are a great way to experience what it is like to do reasearch and cover a diversity of fields such as medical physics, astronomy, experimental quantum optics, material science and computational methods in physics.
Projects duration is set to 8 weeks, with the start and end date to be agreed individually and flexibly between the student and the supervisor. Students will receive a bursary of £250 per week. Students can take a two week break during the internship, to be negotiated with the supervisor.
Application process
Projects are aimed at the penultimate year undergraduate students (BSc and MSci), but second year MSci students are also welcome to apply. Applications from students from other universities are also welcome.
To apply, please send a CV that includes a personal statement of motivation about why you would like to do the project, to Olga.Fernholz@nottingham.ac.uk. You can apply up to three projects. Please state a list of your selected project in the order or priority on your CV as part of your personal statement. You do not need to write a separte motivation statement for each project, just a general one about why you would like to do a research project at the School and what your interests are (about 350 words). Your CV can be longer than one page.
Deadline to apply is Friday 28 February 5pm.
Summer projects 2025
Project Title: Thin Film Metrology; towards a low-cost ellipsometer
Supervisor: James Sharp
Project Summary: Measurement of thin film properties (e.g. thickness and optical properties) is an essential process in a wide array of both industrial and research based settings – especially for materials related to solar cells.
Ellipsometry is one such technique that has found wide application in semiconductor and photovoltaic research and for the general measurement of thin films and coatings. An ellipsometer is an optical instrument that is capable of measuring the thickness of films within sub-nanometre resolution as well as both the refractive index and extinction coefficient of materials. This information is invaluable for understanding, modelling and optimising the performance of a wide range of devices.
In this project, you will work on a collaborative project with an industry partner (Ossila Ltd) to develop a prototype of a low-cost ellipsometer. The role will require you to use Python to interface with Arduinos, control stepper motors and acquire data from photodetectors. You will also help to write the code to analyse the ellipsometry data and be involved in instrument design. The ideal candidate for this position would be someone who has excellent programming skills, an interest in the automation of scientific equipment and a potential interest in working with industry at the leading-edge of new-product R&D.
Project Title: Strain dependent properties of two dimensional semiconductors
Supervisors: James Sharp, Amalia Patane and Michael Weir
Project summary: Graphene and other two dimensional materials have interesting properties when compared to allotropes of the same materials. In particular, the electronic and mechanical properties of these layers are often enhanced relative to the corresponding bulk, three-dimensional crystal.
Recent research in the School has demonstrated that bending of two dimensional semiconductor layers results in a giant elasto-optic response [1]. This project will extend our previous work to study two dimensional layers of In2Se3. This semiconductor has potentially important ferroelectric properties which are also expected to be sensitive to bending.
The successful candidate will be responsible for preparing samples and performing Raman microscopy studies to study the effects that bending has on 2D layers of In2Se3.
[1] “Giant elasto-optic response of gallium selenide on flexible mica”, T. Barker, A. Gray, M. P. Weir, J. S. Sharp, A. Kenton, Z. R. Kudrynskyi, H. Rostami and A. Patané npj Flex Electron, 9, 2 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41528-024-00375-3
Project Title: Using MRI and MEG to quantify mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Supervisor: Karen Mullinger (Primary), Dan Ford (secondary, current PhD student)
Project Summary: Mild Traumatic brain injury (mTBI), which you might know as concussion, is a silent epidemic. Over 1.1M hospital visits in England and Wales are classified as mTBI. mTBI occurs in all walks of life, ranging from road traffic accidents and falls to sports and military injuries. Whilst many individuals recover, ~30% have disabling long term post concussive symptoms (PCS) including headache, cognitive dysfunction and psychiatric symptoms. These impair ability to return to normal life with an estimated annual UK economic cost of £15Bn.
Currently no reliable biomarkers of those who will develop PCS exist. We have collected 6 datasets (both MRI and MEG) on 20 healthy participants and 20 participants who have suffered a mTBI within 21 days of the first imaging data acquired. You will work with others in the SPMIC to process these data and derive the most robust biomarkers of mTBI from the data we have. You will also assist with new data collection on a project which is focusing on people who have suffered sub-concussions due to playing sport or military training exercises. This project will require the ability to code in python, willingness to learn MATLAB, and a keen interest in Medical Physics.
Project Title: Developing mathematical models to analyse kidney perfusion and blood flow using MRI
Supervisors: Eleanor Cox and Sue Francis
Project Summary: Impaired blood flow to the kidney underlies a number of different kidney diseases. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to study the structure of the kidneys, blood flow to the kidneys and how well they are perfused.
We have acquired MRI data in healthy volunteers and patients with kidney disease, including arterial spin labelling (ASL) for measuring perfusion. The aim of this project is to expand on our existing MR image analysis pipelines to develop mathematical models to improve the accuracy of perfusion measurements.
In parallel, you will also be involved with analysing patient data from a multicentre renal MRI study called AFiRM which uses MRI to determine the severity and nature of kidney disease and tracks changes over time. You would also have the opportunity to join MRI scan sessions.
Project Title: Illuminating the Dark: Characterizing the Farthest Extents of the Most Massive Objects in the Universe
Supervisors: Dr. Jesse Golden-Marx and Dr. Garreth Martin
Project Summary: Galaxy Clusters, the largest, most massive, and rarest structures in the Universe are permeated by extremely faint and diffuse intracluster light. While this light is faint, it accounts for a significant fraction of stars in clusters. Moreover, its distribution informs how clusters grow over time and allows astronomers to trace the cluster’s illusive and invisible dark matter structure.
Unprecedented observations from the Euclid Space Telescope will allow us to detect intracluster light out to the farthest outskirts of thousands of clusters for the first time. However, even with these observations, intracluster light remains extremely faint, so a powerful approach to enhance our understanding is combining signals from many individual clusters. This statistical stacking technique allows us to recover fainter details, extending the range intracluster light can be mapped. The student who works with us on this project will use state-of-the-art data to combine intracluster light signals and address how this light evolves over the last 10 billion years and explore the possibility of using this technique to enhance our ability to trace intracluster light’s connection to dark matter. This student will gain experience working with data, python coding skills, be integrated into a large research group and experience working in a research environment.
Project Title: Relativistic boosts of cosmic superstring configurations
Supervisor: Tasos Avgoustidis
Project Summary: This project will begin with a detailed exploration of the theory of Special Relativity, understood as geometry on Minkowski spacetime. The effect of passive and active Lorentz transformations will be studied to develop an understanding of Lorentz boosts as hyperbolic rotations in spacetime. This knowledge will then be used to investigate the effect of relativistic velocities on the structure of Y-junction configurations in cosmic superstring networks, where fundamental F-strings and one-dimensional D-branes (referred to as F-strings) can zip together to form bound states which affect the scaling properties of cosmic superstring networks.
Project Title: Exploring the link between molecular and ionised gas inflows in nearby galaxies
Supervisors: Dr Tutku Kolcu and Dr Callum Bellhouse
Project Summary: The nature and morphology of galaxies are driven by gas inflows. The inflowing gas can enhance star formation (SF) and reshape the central morphology by forming nuclear discs and rings. Gas reaching the core can fuel active galactic nuclei, triggering energetic feedback which can suppress SF. Therefore, understanding the structural evolution of galaxies requires a thorough investigation of the role of gas inflows. A key mechanism driving gas inflows is shocks, formed due to gravitational torques from galactic bars. These appear as jumps in gas kinematic maps (e.g., velocity) but can be distorted by global flow and local perturbations like stellar outflows.
While different gas phases, such as ionised and molecular gas, should respond similarly to shocks, various factors can alter kinematics and shock imprints. Using ALMA data, this project investigates molecular gas kinematics in galaxies with confirmed ionised gas shocks. By comparing molecular and ionised gas kinematic maps, we aim to determine whether shocks align in location, velocity, and extent. As a follow up, using data from JWST, we can study the dust and SF features in identified molecular shock sites. Our findings will enhance our understanding of the role of multiphase gas inflows in shaping galaxies.
Project Title: Interference of large cold atom clouds for quantum gravity experiments
Supervisors: L. Hackermueller and N. Cooper
Project Summary: Ultracold atoms have been fascinating systems for several years. They are connected to 2 Nobel prizes and are contributing to the quantum technology revolution.
Ultracold atoms are also interesting candidates for fundamental research questions, where a long-standing problem is quantum gravity. We explore whether it is possible to create large samples of degenerate atoms and bring them to interference. When a system that is already “quantum”, i.e. a cloud of ultracold atoms, reaches a regime, where the cloud also has relevant mass then this enables us to study the interplay of quantum physics and gravity. In this way, we will be able to provide experimental data and thus shed light on this fascinating problem.
We are working with cold rubidium atoms with temperatures of 10-50 microkelvin with record high atom numbers in the regime of 1010 – 1011 atoms. Following that we reduce the temperature to 1–10 microkelvin and use an optical beam splitter to create interference fringes.
A highly motivated summer student will be able to join our experimental team. They will e.g. work on the experimental trap characterisation, help taking data, optimise magnetic fields and temperatures. The student will also have the chance to build electronic setups, optical systems and help with simulations and data analysis. This project is an excellent opportunity to get involved with exciting research and to gain experience about working in a research group.
Project Title: Metasurface Optics in Wide Band Gap Materials
Supervisor: Dr Chris Mellor
Project Summary: Metasurface optics are optical components made by patterning a surface with sub-wavelength features [1]. Therefore, lenses and other components can be made on flat surfaces using microfabrication techniques. The materials that are used must be transparent to the light that passes through them, so to make components that work across the visible spectrum and into the UV the materials need to have a wide band gap. Several research groups at the university are expert at depositing wide band gap materials such as boron nitride and aluminium nitride onto fused silica or sapphire substrates.
The aim of the summer project is to use a state-of-the-art simulation package called Ansys Lumerical to design and simulate the response of metasurfaces at visible and UV wavelengths made from thin films of wide band gap materials [ e.g. a potential approach is described in [2]). Promising designs will be fabricated and tested.
References
M. Khorasaninejad, et al, Metalenses at visible wavelengths: Diffraction-limited focusing and subwavelength resolution imaging, Science 352 (2016) 1190-1194.
L Kuhner, et al, High-Q Nanophotonics over the Full Visible Spectrum Enabled by Hexagonal Boron Nitride Metasurfaces, Advanced Materials 35 (2023) 2209688.
Project Title: Finite Element Models of Magnetic Control Systems for Quantum Technologies
Supervisor: Alister Davis, Mark Fromhold
Project Summary: Almost all emerging quantum technologies – from quantum computers to brain scanners and GPS-free navigation – require a strictly controlled magnetic field environment for their operation. This need for high quality field shaping is often fulfilled using intricate coil systems and/or high permeability magnetic shielding.
Due to the intricate nature of the coil systems used, and their non-trivial interaction with the high permeability shielding surrounding it, it is often most convenient to predict their behaviour using Finite Element Methods (FEM). In this project, the student will be asked to use the commercial FEM software, COMSOL Multiphysics, to create a small suite of generalised models used to check the operation of designed field shaping systems.
No prior knowledge of COMSOL Multiphysics or FEM is required. This project would suit a candidate with an interest in computational physics as well as classical electromagnetism.
Questions on this project can be directed to alister.davis@nottingham.ac.uk