Alexander Stilgoe

Control and measurement of biological and optical active matter

Swarms of particles can extract energy from their environment. Any system that utilises energy in the environment for locomotion is active matter. One of the key reasons for this beahviour is for the foraging of resources. Active matter occurs throughout nature, ranging from single molecules to entire organisms. More recently, we have begun experiments using optically active materials. We want to understand the interactions of both synthetic and natural active matter systems.

There is a suite of honours projects in this topic area ranging from multiple particle tracking and behaviour characterisation using machine-learning techniques to designing active matter experiments to understand the complex interactions between active matter and their environment. The project may be tailored to the strengths and interests of the candidate as we find active matter a fascinating research area with plenty to discover.

This project can be tailored to suit honours, masters, and PhD level candidates.

Co-supervision with Halina Rubinstein-Dunlop.

3D Holographic microscope

Light-based microscopes have been at the forefront scientific research in the hard and soft physical sciences. They are limited by wave diffraction to resolutions of approximately half the wavelength of light used to image the sample. The image of this diffraction will change depending on the angle and wavelength of light used to illuminate the sample. Hence, these images contain complementary information about refractive index variation in 3D space. In this project we will advanced the field of microscopy by utilizing big data and machine learning to learn a filtering and transformation of data in a microscope system to yield synthetic images that accurately show the 3D localisation of refractive index variation within of complex environments. This will generate an unprecedented view of light-based microscope samples below the diffraction limit and into the intermediate scattering regime.

This project can be tailored to suit honours, masters, and PhD level candidates.

Co-supervision with Halina Rubinstein-Dunlop.

Manipulation of matter using vectoral shaping of light

Light can be used to trap and control matter on the microscale. One of the famous applications of optical manipulation are Optical Tweezers. Optical tweezers enable trapping and manipulation of matter using highly focused laser light. This project will utilise modern diffractive optics tehcniques and algoirthmic optimisation to improve control and mesurement of light--matter interactions using optical tweezers and enable a new generation of precision measurements for use within soft-matter and biological systems.

This project can be tailored to suit honours, masters, and PhD level candidates.

Co-supervision with Halina Rubinstein-Dunlop.

3D Holographic microscope

Light-based microscopes have been at the forefront scientific research in the hard and soft physical sciences. They are limited by wave diffraction to resolutions of approximately half the wavelength of light used to image the sample. The image of this diffraction will change depending on the angle and wavelength of light used to illuminate the sample. Hence, these images contain complementary information about refractive index variation in 3D space. In this project we will advanced the field of microscopy by utilizing big data and machine learning to learn a filtering and transformation of data in a microscope system to yield synthetic images that accurately show the 3D localisation of refractive index variation within of complex environments. This will generate an unprecedented view of light-based microscope samples below the diffraction limit and into the intermediate scattering regime.

This project can be tailored to suit honours, masters, and PhD level candidates.

Co-supervision with Halina Rubinstein-Dunlop.