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The global semiconductor market has a value of around $1trillion, over 90% of which is silicon based. In many senses silicon has driven the growth in the world economy for the last 40 years and has had an unparalleled cultural impact. Given the current level of commitment to silicon fabrication and its integration with other systems in terms of intellectual investment and foundry cost this is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. Silicon is used in almost all electronic circuitry. However, there is one area of electronics that, at the moment, silicon cannnot be used to fill; that is in the emission of light. Silicon cannot normally emit light, but nearly all telecommunications and internet data transfer is currently done using light transmitted down fibre optics. So in everyones home signals are encoded by silicon and transmitted down wires to a station where other (expensive) components combine these signals and send light down fibres. If cheap silicon light emitters were available, the fibre optics could be brought into everyones homes and the data rate into and out of our homes would increase enormously. Also the connection between chips on circuit boards and even within chips could be performed using light instead of electricity. The applicants intend to form a consortium in the UK and to collaborate with international research groups to make silicon emit light using tiny clumps of silicon, called nanocrystals;. These nanocrystals can emit light in the visible and can be made to emit in the infrared by adding erbium atoms to them. A number of techniques available in Manchester, London and Guildford will be applied to such silicon chips to understand the light emission and to try to make silicon chips that emit light when electricity is passed through them. This will create a versatile silicon optical platform with applications in telecommunications, solar energy and secure communications. This technology would be commercialised by the applicants using a high tech start-up commpany.

This project studies development of high power DC transmission networks. There is currently significant interest in developing technologies that will enable interconnection of distributed DC sources to DC networks in multi MW power sizes. The application fields include offshore renewable power parks, North Sea Supergrid, subsea power supplies in oil industry and many more. A medium power DC network test rig will be developed at Aberdeen University which will include DC transformers and fault isolation components. The project will investigate efficient, light-weight DC transformer topologies that will enable cost-effective power exchange between DC systems at wide varying voltage levels. The DC test rig will enable practical testing of DC circuit breaker which will be one of the crucial enabling technologies for DC networks. The project further investigates the operational and control principles of future large DC power networks. This project strengthens collaborative links between University of Aberdeen and Ryerson University LEDAR laboratory.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a vital analytical tool across science. NMR is most usually applied to substances dissolved in solution since this considerably simplifies the interpretation of the results (spectra) that are obtained; molecular motion averages out interactions, such as the dipolar (through space magnetic) interaction between the magnetic nuclei. However, in many applications, particularly in materials chemistry and biology, it is impossible or inappropriate to apply NMR to samples in solutions and it is necessary to work with solid samples. This creates particular difficulties for studies using hydrogen (1H) NMR which is otherwise the most widely used form of NMR (including in medical imaging applications). Typical organic (carbon-containing) molecules contain high densities of hydrogen nuclei. Although an advantage in terms of the strength of the NMR signal, the multiple magnetic (dipolar) interactions between the hydrogen nuclei cause the NMR signal to decay quickly and broaden the NMR lines into uninformative broad features. This problem has traditionally been tackled in a couple of ways. Firstly by spinning the sample (magic-angle spinning), but unfeasibly high spinning rates would be required to completely remove the dipolar interactions. Secondly using radio-frequency irradiation to average out the dipolar interactions, but this can be technically complex and the results are very susceptible to experimental deficiencies. Since the line-broadening involves the interactions of multiple nuclear spins it has been difficult to model computationally and to investigate mathematically. As a result, progress in improving 1H NMR spectra in solids has been rather fitful.This project will tackle this bottle-neck for the development of solid-state NMR. Firstly by putting together a consortium of international research groups with complementary expertise (experimental, computational and theoretical) and equipment (including NMR spectrometers operating at some of the highest magnetic fields available worldwide) we will be able to tackle the problem simultaneously and systematically from different directions. Secondly, recent advances in spectrometer hardware, simulation and NMR theory mean that the individual tools are in place to make concerted progress. Finally we will be focussing on one parameter, the decay rate of the magnetisation, which is the key limiting factor. Previous work has addressed final NMR spectra, but since these are affected by a number of additional factors, this has tended to confuse the underlying issues. The large discrepancies between simulations and current experiments suggest that potentially major improvements are possible.Finding routes to producing high-quality NMR spectra of hydrogen-containing organic solids in a routine fashion will have a major impact on the practice of solid-state NMR. Some experiments which are currently impractical due to the length of time they would take will become practical and narrowing the NMR lines will allow new, finer spectral detail to be measured, such as weak interactions across hydrogen bonds connecting different components of crystal structures. As a result this proposal is being supported by a wide range of scientists, varying from users of solid-state NMR to manufacturers of pharmaceutics to suppliers of NMR equipment.

The global semiconductor market has a value of around $1trillion, over 90% of which is silicon based. In many senses silicon has driven the growth in the world economy for the last 40 years and has had an unparalleled cultural impact. Given the current level of commitment to silicon fabrication and its integration with other systems in terms of intellectual investment and foundry cost this is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. Silicon is used in almost all electronic circuitry. However, there is one area of electronics that, at the moment, silicon cannnot be used to fill; that is in the emission of light. Silicon cannot normally emit light, but nearly all telecommunications and internet data transfer is currently done using light transmitted down fibre optics. So in everyones home signals are encoded by silicon and transmitted down wires to a station where other (expensive) components combine these signals and send light down fibres. If cheap silicon light emitters were available, the fibre optics could be brought into everyones homes and the data rate into and out of our homes would increase enormously. Also the connection between chips on circuit boards and even within chips could be performed using light instead of electricity. The applicants intend to form a consortium in the UK and to collaborate with international research groups to make silicon emit light using tiny clumps of silicon, called nanocrystals;. These nanocrystals can emit light in the visible and can be made to emit in the infrared by adding erbium atoms to them. A number of techniques available in Manchester, London and Guildford will be applied to such silicon chips to understand the light emission and to try to make silicon chips that emit light when electricity is passed through them. This will create a versatile silicon optical platform with applications in telecommunications, solar energy and secure communications. This technology would be commercialised by the applicants using a high tech start-up commpany.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a vital analytical tool across science. NMR is most usually applied to substances dissolved in solution since this considerably simplifies the interpretation of the results (spectra) that are obtained; molecular motion averages out interactions, such as the dipolar (through space magnetic) interaction between the magnetic nuclei. However, in many applications, particularly in materials chemistry and biology, it is impossible or inappropriate to apply NMR to samples in solutions and it is necessary to work with solid samples. This creates particular difficulties for studies using hydrogen (1H) NMR which is otherwise the most widely used form of NMR (including in medical imaging applications). Typical organic (carbon-containing) molecules contain high densities of hydrogen nuclei. Although an advantage in terms of the strength of the NMR signal, the multiple magnetic (dipolar) interactions between the hydrogen nuclei cause the NMR signal to decay quickly and broaden the NMR lines into uninformative broad features. This problem has traditionally been tackled in a couple of ways. Firstly by spinning the sample (magic-angle spinning), but unfeasibly high spinning rates would be required to completely remove the dipolar interactions. Secondly using radio-frequency irradiation to average out the dipolar interactions, but this can be technically complex and the results are very susceptible to experimental deficiencies. Since the line-broadening involves the interactions of multiple nuclear spins it has been difficult to model computationally and to investigate mathematically. As a result, progress in improving 1H NMR spectra in solids has been rather fitful.This project will tackle this bottle-neck for the development of solid-state NMR. Firstly by putting together a consortium of international research groups with complementary expertise (experimental, computational and theoretical) and equipment (including NMR spectrometers operating at some of the highest magnetic fields available worldwide) we will be able to tackle the problem simultaneously and systematically from different directions. Secondly, recent advances in spectrometer hardware, simulation and NMR theory mean that the individual tools are in place to make concerted progress. Finally we will be focussing on one parameter, the decay rate of the magnetisation, which is the key limiting factor. Previous work has addressed final NMR spectra, but since these are affected by a number of additional factors, this has tended to confuse the underlying issues. The large discrepancies between simulations and current experiments suggest that potentially major improvements are possible.Finding routes to producing high-quality NMR spectra of hydrogen-containing organic solids in a routine fashion will have a major impact on the practice of solid-state NMR. Some experiments which are currently impractical due to the length of time they would take will become practical and narrowing the NMR lines will allow new, finer spectral detail to be measured, such as weak interactions across hydrogen bonds connecting different components of crystal structures. As a result this proposal is being supported by a wide range of scientists, varying from users of solid-state NMR to manufacturers of pharmaceutics to suppliers of NMR equipment.

To avoid global warming and our unsustainable dependence on fossil fuels, the UK's CO2 emissions are recommended to be reduced by 80% from current levels by 2050. Aerospace and automotive manufacturing are critical to the UK economy, with a turnover of 30 billion and employing some 600,000 worker. Applications for light alloys within the transport sector are projected to double in the next decade. However, the properties and cost of current light alloy materials, and the associated manufacturing processes, are already inhibiting progress. Polymer composites are too expensive for body structures in large volume vehicle production and difficult to recycle. First generation, with a high level of recycling, full light alloy aluminium and magnesium vehicles in production are cheaper and give similar weight savings (~ 40%) and life cycle CO2 footprint to low cost composites. Computer-based design tools are also playing an increasing role in industry and allow, as never before, the optimisation of complex component architectures for increased mass efficiency. High performance alloys are still dominant in aeroengine applications and will provide ~ 30% of the structural components of future aircraft designs, where they will have to be increasingly produced in more intricate component shapes and interfaced with composite materials.To achieve further weight reductions, a second generation of higher performance light alloy design solutions are thus required that perform reliably in service, are recyclable, and have more complex product forms - produced with lower cost, energy efficient, manufacturing processes. With design optimisation, and by combining the best attributes of advanced high strength Al and Mg alloys with composites, laminates, and cheaper steel products, it will be possible to produce step change in performance with cost-effective, highly mass efficient, multi-material structures.This roadmap presents many challenges to the materials community, with research urgently required address the science necessary to solve the following critical issues: How do we make more complex shapes in higher performance lower formability materials, while achieving the required internal microstructure, texture, surface finish and, hence, service and cosmetic properties, and with lower energy requirements? How do we join different materials, such as aluminium and magnesium, with composites, laminates, and steel to produce hybrid materials and more mass efficient cost-effective designs? How do we protect such multi-material structures, and their interfaces against corrosion and environmental degradation?Examples of the many scientific challenges that require immediate attention include, how can we: (i) capture the influence of a materials deformation mechanisms, microstructure and texture on formability, thus allowing computer models to be used to rapidly optimise forming for difficult alloys in terms of component shape and energy requirements; (ii) predict and control detrimental interfacial reactions in dissimilar joints; (iii) take advantage of innovative ideas, like using lasers to 'draw on' more formable microstructures in panels, where it is needed; (v) use smart self healing coating technologies to protect new alloys and dissimilar joints in service, (vi) mitigate against the impact of contamination from recycling on growth of oxide barrier coating, etc.A high priority for the Programme is to help fill the skills gap in metallurgical and corrosion science, highlighted in the EPSRC Review of Materials Research (IMR2008), by training the globally competitive, multidisciplinary, and innovative materials engineers needed by UK manufacturing. The impact of the project will be enhanced by a professionally managed, strategic, research Programme and through promoting a high international profile of the research output, as well as by performing an advocacy role for materials engineering to the general public.