Harvesting light in new liquid crystal based smart materials

英国南安普顿大学软光子学系统研究组博士学位公开招聘，与法国斯特拉斯堡大学合作。该博士项目的重点是设计和构建一类基于液晶的新型集光智能材料，并对其电磁响应进行数值分析。拟议的研究将使博士生嵌入实验物理学家团队，数学家们创造新的液晶系统，根据照射它们的光的强度来调整它们的光学特性。一旦充分开发，它们的应用范围可能从节能到光学限制器，以保护敏感的探测器。该项目将提供一个令人兴奋的机会，在一个真正的跨学科环境中运作，同时学习一些关键的实验，制造和数据分析技能，将适用于各种各样的情况。博士研究项目的核心将是用光敏材料实现新的多层结构，并测量它们的电磁响应。该项目的一个组成部分将是分析实验数据，并使用数值技术从其光学响应中提取材料参数值。该项目的学生将接受微结构液晶光学实验技术、液晶光学数值技术和从实验数据中提取材料参数的参数拟合方面的培训。

Applications are invited for a PhD position in the Soft Photonics Systems group at the University of Southampton in the U.K, in collaboration with the University of Strasbourg in France.This PhD project focuses on designing and building a new class of light harvesting smart materials based on liquid crystals and analysing numerically their electromagnetic response.The proposed research will embed the PhD student in a team of experimental physicists and mathematicians to create new liquid crystal systems that adapt their optical properties based on the intensity of the light illuminating them. Once fully developed their applications may range from energy conservation to optical limiters to protect sensitive detectors. This project will provide an exciting opportunity to operate in a truly interdisciplinary environment, while learning some key experimental, manufacturing and data analysis skills that will be applicable in a wide variety of contexts. The core of the PhD research project will be to realise new multi-layer structures with photosensitive materials and measure their electromagnetic response. An integral part of the project will be the analysis of experimental data and using numerical techniques to extract material parameter values from their optical response. A student on this project will be trained in experimental techniques in micro-structured liquid crystal optics, in numerical techniques for liquid crystal optics and in parameter fitting to extract material parameters from experimental data.