PhD Studentship: Building the world's most advanced polarisation-resolved nonlinear microscope

Overview

This PhD studentship focuses on designing, building, and programming an advanced optical microscope capable of 3D vectorial control of the focal field and true 3D readout of molecular organisation in tissue. The project uses polarisation-resolved second-harmonic generation, a label-free nonlinear technique used for imaging collagen in living tissue. Conventional methods have a blind spot because their excitation field lies in the image plane and cannot detect structures tilted out of that plane. By using a spatial light modulator to sculpt wavefronts and polarisation, researchers will engineer a longitudinal z-polarised field to drive second-harmonic generation from out-of-plane collagen fibrils.

The successful candidate will gain skills in optical design, hands-on alignment of ultrafast nonlinear microscopes, spatial light modulator and digital micromirror device wavefront and polarisation shaping, vectorial focal-field modelling, Jones, Stokes and Mueller formalisms, nonlinear optics, and Python for instrument control and image analysis. There is also scope for machine-learning approaches to the vectorial inverse problem. The work addresses how the 3D architecture of type I collagen sets the mechanical behavior of tissues such as the corneal lattice and load-bearing tendons, offering new measurement capabilities for biophysics, biomechanics, and structural biology.

Who can apply

The studentship is based in the Physics and Astronomy department at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. The supervision team consists of Professor Dave Phillips, who specializes in structured light, and Doctor Ben Sherlock, who specializes in polarisation-resolved nonlinear microscopy. The project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

What you get

The studentship provides coverage of tuition fees alongside an annual stipend of £21,805 per annum for the 2026/7 period. The position is structured as a full-time, fixed-term contract.

Key dates

The closing date for applications is 2026-12-08.