Photon Factory

Project

Fluorescence spectroscopy is an effective tool to determine chemistry of substances without tedious sample preparation. This project investigates the fluorescence of various micro contaminants in our drinking and waste water. The student will earn hands on experience with fluorescence spectrometers and the amazing insights of how and why molecules interact with light. The project is guided by Alex Risos and you will be working within the incredible interdisciplinary Photon Factory at the school of chemistry!

Project

Life is abundant and evolved in many shapes. Our smallest life forms are single cell organisms living everywhere among us. Some are useful some are harmful for health. For rapid identification, we want to understand the different shapes of life of most common single cell life forms in our drinking water. This project investigates the vast variety of single cell life by imaging and classification for automated identification. The student will learn the professional use of microscopy and incredible depth perception of microorganism life. The project is guided by Alex Risos and you will be working within the astonishing interdisciplinary Photon Factory at the school of chemistry!

Project

At the deep UV, many substances exhibit fluorescence which we can exploit to determine the chemistry of liquids and solids. Fluorescence spectroscopy is much more efficient compared to Raman or FTIR spectroscopy, and thus the student will investigate the fluorescence cross section of typical waterborne contaminants and determine its real world limit of detection. Using professional, state of the art equipment, the student will learn how light interacts with molecules and how to accurately conduct chemical experiments. Your guide will be Alex Risos within the remarkable Photon Factory at the school of chemistry!

Project

When molecules are excited with a high energetic electromagnetic wave, they can undergo electronic excitation and emit wonderful light by the process called fluorescence. This signal is often red shifted by a few nm from our UV-C excitation wavelength. This wavelength poses a unique opportunity to develop an optimised spectrometer for highly accurate identification of contaminants in waters. The student will learn hands on experience with optics, lasers to detect spectral radiation using CCD detectors and optical gratings. Your guide will be Alex Risos within the remarkable Photon Factory at the department of physics!

Project

Holography is known for its unique ability to record and reconstruct a scene based on its volumetric properties. Traditionally, this is done using monochromatic light but a new approach uses a continuum of light. This continuum of light, aka white laser light, can be used to reconstruct the 3D scene without knowing its spatial depth; blue, green and red light diffract differently on objects and as such, the object can be reconstructed knowing the colour of the light instead of its (often unknown) distance in space. This project is suited for a student of theoretical and experiential nature. You will learn to conduct complex simulations and/or hands on experience using white laser light. Your guide will be Alex Risos within the remarkable Photon Factory at the department of physics!

Note: This is a theoretical work and involves to learn heaps about digital holography! :)

Project

Using a cascaded set of chirped mirrors, ultrafast laser pulses and nonlinear crystals, the project investigates experimentally and/or theoretically the possibility of generating ultrafast self-compressed chi3 supercontinuum pulses for advanced light matter interaction phenomena. Your guide will be Alex Risos within the remarkable Photon Factory at the department of physics!

Project

Time of light is a well-known method to determine distance using lasers. Classical holography uses the backscattered speckle pattern to reconstruct the scenery. A combination with time of flight measuring technique allows real time imaging of 3D scenes. This is conventionally an apex territory for LIDAR but much simpler, lighter, compact, and more reliable as well as more cost efficient. Importantly, its gives an instantiations response from the scene as a whole, without LIDAR like scanning delay. Your guide will be Alex Risos within the remarkable Photon Factory at the department of physics!

Project

Reconstructing 3D scenes from recorded holograms is a well applied technique but suffers from true precision volumetric imaging in real time. Using latest Tensor core accelerated hardware, we will enable true volumetric imaging in real time using NVidia’s hardware platforms. The opportunity of applying and further developing efficient phase unwrapping enables the student to earn hands on experience in translating algebraic syntax to computer code using python or C++. Your guide will be Alex Risos within the remarkable Photon Factory at the department of physics!

Project

Conventionally, holography uses diffraction pattern along one propagation axis. Using multiple axis*, we can increase spatial resolution and increase confidence of successful detection using our neural nets. The student will learn how to reconstruct holograms to 3D volumetric images using diffraction theory. The experiments will be carried out in conjunction with theoretical predictions. Your guide will be Alex Risos within the remarkable Photon Factory at the department of physics!

*One beam along Z (X, Y; Z) and another beam along X (Y, Z; X) to have 2x 3D datasets to be merged via artificial intelligence.