Experimental Physics
University of Strathclyde
About the Project Project to start Oct 2026. Applications accepted until position is filled. In a quantum many-body system the interactions between the constituent microscopic particles lead to emergent macroscopic phenomena. Such macroscopic phenomena include superfluidity (fluid flow without viscosity) and superconductivity (conduction of electricity without resistance).
- Location
- Glasgow, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 30 September 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
Royal Holloway, University of London
As a research-intensive university, we’re of one of the UK’s top 30 universities for research quality according to The Complete University Guide . We encourage innovation and rising talent, enabling established and emerging research leaders to achieve excellence and respond to new opportunities.
- Location
- Egham, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 20 October 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
The University of Manchester
About the Project Long-distance quantum communication is limited by photon loss in optical fibre. Heterogeneous quantum repeaters that combine deterministic III–V quantum-dot (QD) sources with room-temperature alkali-vapour memories offer a practical route to high-rate, fibre-compatible networks (Zajac et al., arXiv:2503.13775). This architecture underpinned Dr Joanna Zajac’s U.S.
- Location
- Manchester, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 1 December 2026
- Funding
- UK Students; £21,805 tax-free stipend and tuition fees will be paid
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
Some of the biggest open questions in modern physics concern the limits of the Standard Model and General Relativity. The nature of dark matter and dark energy remains unknown, and many theories attempting to tackle this problem predict that the fundamental constants may vary in space or time. Atomic clocks provide an exceptionally sensitive way of testing this possibility.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- 17 December 2026
- Funding
- UK Students, EU Students, International Students; Not Specified
Experimental Physics
University of Basel
About the Project Atomically thin layers of various materials can be combined - almost at will - into novel artificial materials, with graphene structures being the most prominent examples. If two (or more) layers are combined at a certain twist angle between the crystal orientations, as illustrated in Fig.1a, an additional periodic modulation of the atomic lattice potential can emerge, often referred to as moiré superlattice.
- Location
- Basel, Switzerland, Switzerland
- Deadline
- 31 December 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
University of Basel
About the Project The Photonic Ultrafast Systems Group headed by Prof. Bojan Resan develops ultrafast lasers and photonic systems targeting applications in biomedicine, micro-material processing and optical communications. By deploying our developed application-driven custom-tailored ultrafast lasers, we advance the application performance and potential.
- Location
- Basel, Switzerland, Switzerland
- Deadline
- 31 December 2026
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
Heriot-Watt University
About the Project We are seeking to appoint a talented PhD candidate to join the Ultrafast Optics Group at Heriot-Watt, to start by 1 October 2026, to develop a faster and more sensitive implementation of dual-comb ranging—an optical metrology technique combining interferometry-like precision with time-of-flight accuracy.
- Location
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project Over the past decade, quantum sensors have rapidly progressed and have demonstrated their exceptional stability and precision. They have gathered significant interest from fundamental research and real-world applications, including navigation. Satellite navigation (SatNav) has soon prevailed after it was open to civilian use in the late 1980s, despite its inherent limitations, e.g.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project Chronometric levelling at cm precision is an important application for optical clocks, requiring their relative frequency inaccuracies at the level of 1x10-18. In fact, conventional state-of-the art methods have already reached geodetic limit. Optical clocks with their mind-boggling uncertainty level at 1x10-18, particularly transportable setups, have the potential to over the limitation.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project An optical quantum memory, a device which can store and retrieve an arbitrary quantum state at the single photon level, has been identified as a significant cornerstone of photonic quantum technologies. The development of such a memory would allow the creation and development of a large number of quantum technologies.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
University of Sheffield
About the Project Cosmic-ray muons are known to be useful in applications beyond particle astrophysics. They have helped with mapping structure of volcanoes and with finding voids in various geological structures. Other possible applications include studies of geological repositories including monitoring carbon capture, tracing illicit nuclear materials etc.
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project Our understanding of the Universe and its fundamental constituents is conveyed by the Standard Model of particle physics and by General Relativity. Despite the many experimental verifications, these two frameworks famously fail to describe 95% of the constituents of the Universe, including the so-called dark matter.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project This PhD project aims to design and build a femtosecond pump–probe microscope capable of monitoring photoluminescence (PL), reflection, and transmittance with sub-picosecond temporal resolution and micron-scale spatial precision. Such systems are at the forefront of ultrafast science, enabling direct observation of carrier dynamics, exciton formation, and energy transfer in advanced materials, including semiconductors, nanostructures, and quantum composites.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project Over the past decade, quantum sensors have rapidly progressed and have demonstrated their exceptional stability and precision. They have gathered significant interest from fundamental research and real-world applications, including navigation. Satellite navigation (SatNav) has soon prevailed after it was open to civilian use in the late 1980s, despite its inherent limitations, e.g.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project Optical clocks are most precise instruments ever built by human beings. They are excellent tools to carry out measurements on the time variation of constants such as fine structure constant, Alpha. Change in Alpha would mean going beyond the Standard Model and could reveal hidden aspects of the Universe including beginning of the Universe at the time of Big Bang, formation of matter (like atoms) and its expansion.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project Over the past decade, quantum sensors have rapidly progressed and have demonstrated their huge potential in numerous real-world applications, including navigation, geo-survey, and biomedical imaging. Many of these applications demand compact, low-power solutions whilst striking a good balance with robustness and performance.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
University of Sheffield
About the Project Precision agriculture, a data-driven approach to farming, relies on accurate and timely information about soil properties. Neutron and gamma ray sensing offers a non-destructive and in-situ method to measure soil moisture, density, and elemental composition. This project aims to develop advanced sensors for neutron and gamma ray sensing, tailored for agricultural applications to improve crop yield, water management, and nutrient optimisation.
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Experimental Physics
University of Sheffield
About the Project Neutrinos play a crucial role in our understanding of the universe. Their ability to oscillate between different flavours (electron, muon, and tau) provides a window into the fundamental properties of matter and the nature of the weak force. Future experiments like T2K and Hyper-K aim to precisely measure neutrino oscillations and search for new physics phenomena.
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Experimental Physics
University of Sheffield
About the Project Fusion energy, a promising clean energy source, faces significant challenges, one of which is the containment of extremely high-temperature plasma. Magnetic fields are employed to confine this plasma, but precise measurements of these fields are crucial for understanding and optimising fusion reactor performance.
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project This PhD focuses on developing a working photodetector that uses a nanoplasmonic semiconductor composite as the active material. Unlike conventional detectors, these composites offer extended spectral sensitivity beyond the semiconductor bandgap, enhanced responsivity (A/W) through localised surface plasmon (LSP) field amplification, and ultrabroad bandwidth for high-speed operation.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
University of Warwick
About the Project What is a metal? Surprisingly, the answer to this fundamental question is no longer clear. Physical phenomena that were long thought to define the metallic state have recently been observed in materials that are evidently electric insulators. This emerging situation challenges long-held concepts and could well reshape how we teach basic physics principles.
- Location
- Coventry, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project An optical quantum memory, a device which can store and retrieve an arbitrary quantum state at the single photon level, has been identified as a significant cornerstone of photonic quantum technologies. The development of such a memory would allow the creation and development of a large number of quantum technologies.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
Heriot-Watt University
About the Project The Edinburgh Mostly Quantum Lab (EMQL) offers a PhD position in photonic quantum networking with photonic telecom cluster states. The focus will be on experimental demonstrations in a range of multi-party quantum communication scenarios, including conference key distribution, all-optical repeaters, quantum network coding, quantum sensing, quantum time transfer, and more.
- Location
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
Heriot-Watt University
About the Project The Edinburgh Mostly Quantum Lab (EMQL) offers a PhD position in satellite quantum communication. Quantum communication allows for unconditionally secure encryption of messages. Terrestrial quantum networks are limited in range due to the quantum signal loss in optical fibres. This limitation can be overcome with satellites, equipped with quantum transmitters or receivers, that exchange keys with optical ground stations.
- Location
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project Optical clocks are most precise instruments ever built by human beings. They are excellent tools to study fundamental physics. Presently, SI second is defined using Cs hyperfine transition which falls in the microwave domain (~9.2GHz). However optical clocks have surpassed microwave clocks by at least two orders of magnitude in their performance. There is a great drive to re-define the SI second to an optical clock transition.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
Heriot-Watt University
About the Project About the Project Overview In recent years, there have been a number of remarkable advances in the use of quantum detection in optical imaging.
- Location
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
Royal Holloway, University of London
About the Project The Centre for Particle Physics at Royal Holloway is offering a PhD opportunity on the T2K and DUNE long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. Neutrinos are fundamental particles which are absurdly abundant, yet elusively shy. Neutrino oscillation is a phenomenon whereby neutrinos that were born as one of three flavours can be later detected as a different flavour.
- Location
- Egham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
University of Sheffield
About the Project The SBND (Short-Baseline Near Detector) experiment is part of the multi-detector Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) programme located along the Booster Neutrino Beamline at Fermilab, USA. Each detector in the SBN programme utilises the liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) technology.
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Experimental Physics
University of Sheffield
About the Project It's widely believed that the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics is an incomplete theory. The 125 GeV Higgs boson, discovered by the CERN ATLAS and CMS Experiments, is a crucial probe for physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) of particle physics. While searching for Higgs boson pair production helps probe the Higgs self-coupling (λHHH), the ultimate test of the Higgs potential's shape requires observation of triple Higgs boson production (HHH).
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Experimental Physics
University of Sheffield
About the Project A position is open for an enthusiastic particle physics PhD student to conduct research in developing silicon sensor technologies in use at the energy frontier at the ATLAS experiment. A series of upgrades to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerator complex are planned by CERN, the last of which is dubbed the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) and is expected to begin collecting data in 2030.
- Location
- Sheffield, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Self-Funded PhD Students Only
Experimental Physics
University of Birmingham
About the Project Collective response in an ensemble of atoms can lead to the phenomenon of Superradiance and subradiance states. These are quantum effects and can arise due to strong interactions among atoms of the ensemble. Superradiance causes enhanced emission due to constructive interference and the emission behaviour scales as the square of the number of atoms. However, subradiance can dramatically inhibit or slows down emission through destructive interference.
- Location
- Birmingham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
Experimental Physics
University of Strathclyde
About the Project About the Project Are you excited by quantum many-body physics and state-of-the-art experiments with ultracold atoms? This PhD project offers the opportunity to explore emergent phases of matter in ultracold quantum gases, with a particular focus on light-mediated interactions induced by optical feedback and the formation of supersolids - a remarkable phase that combines crystalline order with superfluid flow.
- Location
- Glasgow, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Experimental Physics
Royal Holloway, University of London
About the Project Applications are invited for a PhD project in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics. In this project you will explore the rich phase diagrams of strongly correlated electron systems. You will investigate the ferromagnetic quantum critical region, where the emergence of spin-density wave order has been observed.
- Location
- Egham, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Deadline
- Year-round applications
- Funding
- Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)