Materials

DPhil in Materials

Course Code | 002470

MSc by Research in Materials

Course Code | 002480

The Department of Materials is one of the top-ranked materials departments in the UK. Its vibrant research school consists of around 25 academic staff, 13 Senior Research Fellows, and around 150 research students and 50 post-doctoral researchers. Research students come from a wide diversity of backgrounds being graduates in the traditional subjects of materials science, physics, chemistry and engineering and also mathematics, earth sciences and biology.

Research interests of the Department extend over most branches of materials science, as well as some aspects of solid state physics and chemistry: they include the study of a wide range of materials of relevance in advanced technological applications, including metals and alloys, composites, semi- and super-conductors, polymers, biomaterials, ceramics and materials for quantum information processing.

Much of the research is carried out in close collaboration with industry. World-leading research takes place on:

• the characterisation of materials, where there is emphasis on electron microscopy and related techniques;
• processing and manufacturing of materials;
  
• modelling of materials, where there is attention to both structures and processes,
  
• properties of materials; and
  
• quantum information processing, which includes groups working on experimental studies, theory and modelling.

Each of the department's research groups works within one or more of our seven broad themes of:

• Structural and nuclear materials
• Device materials
• Polymers and biomaterials
• Nanomaterials
• Processing and manufacturing
• Characterisation
• Computational materials modelling
  

In the UK Government’s most recent assessment of research excellence in UK universities, the 2008 RAE, Oxford Materials was one of the top-rated materials departments in the country. All eligible academic staff and 14 early career researchers (Royal Society URFs, RAEng Fellows and similar post-doctoral fellows) were submitted for assessment and 80% of our activity was judged to be in the highest categories of excellence (Grades 4* & 3*; respectively ‘world-leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’). 

The current research programmes are summarised in the Department’s Researches in Progress, an electronic version of which is available at the Materials website.

Research areas include:

• Renewable energy
  Hydrogen storage
  Fusion reactors
  Polymer photovoltaics
• Structures and mechanical properties of metals and alloys
  Nanocrystalline materials
  Mechanical properties of strong solids, metals and alloys
  Intermetallics
  Materials for fusion and fission reactors
  Superalloys
• Non-metallic materials
  Composites
  Biomedical materials, including tissue scaffolds and drug delivery
  Polymers
  Packaging materials
  Nanobiomaterials
  Nanotubes
• Electronic materials and devices
  Superconducting materials
  Semiconducting materials
  Photovoltaics
  Display materials
  Nanoelectronics
  Optoelectronics
  Nanomanufacturing
• Processing and manufacturing
  Solidification
  Nanocrystalline materials
  Ceramic and metallic composites
  Joining
  Process modelling
• Phase transformations, surfaces and interfaces
  Phase transformations and stability of microstructure
  Oxidation and corrosion
  Structure and properties of interfaces
  Surface reactions and catalysis
  Radiation damage
  Surface engineering
• Characterisation
  Scanning tunnelling and atomic force microscopy
  Field-ion microscopy and atom probe microanalysis
  Transmission electron microscopy and diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis
  Acoustic microscopy
• Modelling and simulation
  Atomic level studies of structure, properties and processes in metals, intermetallics, semiconductors, superconductors, photovoltaics, ceramics and polymers
  Microstructural level studies of fracture and phase transformations
  Macroscopic level studies of processing
  Image analysis and interpretation
  Solid state NMR
  
• Materials science-based archaeology
• Quantum information processing (QIP)
  Experimental, theory and modelling projects
  Materials for use in quantum computers, including:
  • fullerenes
  • carbon nanotubes
  • DNA scaffolds
  • NV@diamond 

• JEOL 2200 FS 200 kV aberration-corrected electron microscope (<1Å)
• UK’s first field-emission gun 300 kV analytical electron microscope
• Several 100 and 200 kV analytical electron microscopes
  
• Acoustic and scanned probe microscopes together with extensive further facilities for characterising materials including, for example, nanoSIMS, XPS, and Raman microscopy.
• Sample preparation facilities including a Zeiss Nvision 40 FIB/SEM and two other FIB instruments
• Microhardness measurements at high temperatures and on the nm scale
• Special processing for ceramics, composites and rapidly solidified materials

The Department also has superb facilities for 3-D atom probe (including LEAP 3000XSi & 3DAP-LAR)

Several parallel computation linux clusters with infiniband interconnects are operated by the Materials Modelling Laboratory, and access is available to all the Oxford Supercomputing Centre facilities.

Begbroke Science Park

The Department’s Institute for Industrial Materials and Manufacturing is housed at Begbroke and has world-class facilities for advanced materials processing and characterisation. A major suite of equipment is available for the characterisation of materials used in micro and nano technology, as detailed on the BegbrokeNano website.

The site also houses a number of Materials-related spinout companies. 

Departmental Library

In addition to the excellent central and college library provision, there is a specialist Materials Science Library housed in the Department.

Information on academic staff profiles

• Postgraduate Certificate in Nanotechnology

Offered by the Department for Continuing Education.

Our graduates are sought after by a wide range of employers, including universities, high-tech start-up companies, industry (including aerospace, electronic, automotive, steel manufacture, medical and household products sectors), schools and colleges, and the financial, business and consultancy sectors.