Summer Bursaries 2008

Information about the Summer Bursaries was circulated earlier by e-mail to all interested parties. A limited no. of bursaries will be awarded on a competitive basis. Decisions will be taken towards the end of May / early June.

In this page we provide a list of projects requested and/or still being advertised, for Summer 2008. Please note that some of the information may still be incomplete or preliminary.

Interested students should get in touch with prospective supervisors.

This page is maintained by Dr Pedro Teixeira-Dias and Mrs Denise Denman; please contact us if you wish to update any of the information here.

List of projects being offered (preliminary)

For each project the following information should be provided:

• Title of project
• Duration (max 10 weeks)
• Supervisor
• Student (if "?", interested students should contact supervisor for more information)
• Brief description of project

Dr Vladimir Antonov

• Title: "Technology of SET on GaAs substrate"
• Duration: 2 weeks
• Supervisor: Dr V Antonov
• Student: P. Sahafi
• Brief description of project:
  • Week 1 June 16 - June 20: Technology of deposition and baking of EBL resists. Exposure SET pattern using EBL system. Technology of development of the resists. Technology of evaporation of Al thin film at Edwards 500. Technology of oxidation of Al at Edwards 500.
  • Week 2 June 23 - June 28: Fabrication of SET on GaAs wafer with gold pads using EBL and Edwards 500 evaporator at RHUL Nanotechnology centre. Characterization of the SET using Scanning Electron Microscope JEOL 6400 and microprobe station. Submission of report on parameters of fabrication and characteristics of SET: resistance, size of the tunnel junctions, distribution of SET characteristics.

Dr Veronique Boisvert

• Title: "Studies involving the Off-Detector Receiver (ODR) card, part of the data acquisition system of a detector for a future accelerator"
• Duration: 10 weeks
• Supervisor: Dr V Boisvert
• Student: David Voneshen, Vishal Panchal, Siegfried Sheldrake, Gareth Bird
• Brief description of project: This project would study the ODR card by designing and performing systematic performance tests involving different aspects of the ODR connectivity: network testing and configuration etc. There is also scope for possibly extending the test suite to emulate the next steps in the communication chain between the subdetector and the ODR card. For example by simulating messages exchanged between the ODR card the subdetector. These components would be central to the data acquisition system of a detector for a future accelerator (like a future linear collider for example). The project would involve mostly software programming in C (prior knowledge is an advantage, but not required), emphasizing communication with hardware components. The student would also have the opportunity to learn about the various detector possibilities for a future collider and their physics applications, as well as the physics goals of a future linear accelerator (Higgs studies, etc.).

Prof. Grahame Blair, Dr Stewart Boogert, Dr Pavel Karataev

Students interested in a project related to the development of future accelerators for particle physics, should contact Dr Boogert + Prof. Blair

• Title of project: Hardware development for accelerator diagnostics
• Duration:10 weeks
• Supervisor:Prof. G. Blair, Dr. S. Boogert, Dr. P. Karataev
• Student: Robert Ainsworth, Katrina Smith and Jacobo Blanco
• Brief description of project: 3 projects

Development of radio frequency detector circuits for high resolution beam position monitors. RHUL has been involved in projects that can accurately determine the position of a ultra-relativistic beam to within 20 nanometers. This project involves approximately 6 weeks of construction of electronics systems including many practical elements, then 4 weeks of testing of the fabricated electronics and their understanding their performance.

Studies of a fast electro-optic scanner system for the laser-wire. This project involves control and characterisation of laser beams,such as the high frequency mode locked laser used here in RHUL.

Coherent diffraction radiation, Optical diffraction radiation are electromagnetic wave emitted from a charged beam when it travels close to a conducting surface. A great deal can be learned about particle beams can be determined from this radiation. This project will involve different techniques to measure the radiation including high resolution CCD cameras and interferometers.

Dr Antonella De Santo

• Title: Supersymmetric tau lepton signatures in ATLAS
• Duration: 10 weeks
• Supervisor; Dr A De Santo
• Student: Milan Bratko, Ivan Misquita-Rice, Bryn Mathias and Stephan Bienek
• Brief description of project: The project I propose is computer based, to investigate the physics potential of SUSY tau signatures at ATLAS. Ideally, by the end of the summer, the student will have:
  • familiarized her/himself with the basic ideas underlying SUSY theories;
  • become proficient in the use of some of the standard ATLAS software tools;
  • performed a scan of the mSUGRA parameter space, to identify a region where tau signatures are enhanced;
  • analyzed fast and/or fully simulated data (both SUSY and Standard Model samples), to optimize a search for SUSY in tau final states;
  • produced a 10-page written report on the work undertaken;
  • presented her/his results in a Powerpoint-based presentation to the RHUL-ATLAS group.

Dr Phil Meeson

• Title: "Measurements of fluctuations in Josephson junction parameters"
• Duration: 10 weeks
• Supervisor: Dr PJ Meeson and Dr Gregoire Ithier
• Student: Jonathan Burnett
• Brief description of project: The aim is to provide a quality assessment of RHUL Josephson Junction fabrication technology. The project will involve fabrication of Josephson Junctions, characterisation of the junction parameters and measurements of the fluctuation of these parameters at dilution fridge temperatures. Feedback to improve and optimise the fabrication technology.

• Title: "calculating properties of superconducting quantum devices"
• Duration: 2 weeks
• Supervisor: Dr PJ Meeson
• Student: Nairi Usher
• Brief description of project: .

Dr James Nicholls and Prof. Petrashov

• Title: "Nanofabrication of hybrid metallic nanostructures" (VTP); "Low temperature measurements with nanostructures" (JTN)
• Duration: 4-8 weeks
• Supervisor: Prof Petrashov and Dr R Shaikhaidarov; Dr James Nicholls
• Student: J Burnett (to be confirmed?), T McLagan, C Shelly
• Brief description of project:

Dr Philip Niklowitz

• Title: "Design of low-temperature stage of Adiabatic Demagnetisation Refrigerator (ADR)"
• Duration: 1 - 2 months
• Supervisor: Dr PG Niklowitz
• Student: Spencer Compton
• Brief description of project:
  • Design should address installation of low-temperature transformers, sample stage suitable for various sample holders and pressure cells, installation of thermometers and heater, salt pill for cooling to mK temperatures. After finishing the design using a CAD program, the student could join the manufacture and assembly as much as possible in order to deepen his insight into low-temperature technologies.

Prof Brian Cowan

• Title: "Supersolid investigation of solid helium"
• Duration: 4-6 weeks
• Supervisor: Prof Brian Cowan
• Student: George Nicholls
• Brief description of project:
  • The student will participate in torsional oscillator supersolid experiments and the associated data processing.

Dr Tracey Berry

• Title: "Generation of New Physics Events using CalcHEP to study in the ATLAS detector"
• Duration: 6-10 weeks
• Supervisor: Dr T. S. Berry
• Student: Tony Poll
• Brief description of project:
  • Aims of the project:

1) To generate ADD Extra Dimensional Model events using CalcHEP and Pythia. 2) To simulate and reconstruct these events using the ATLAS software. 3) To study the generated events within the ATLAS framework.

Extensions: Generate other new physics models available in CalcHEP.