Dr. Nicholas William Phillips

Nick Phillips received his undergraduate degrees from La Trobe University, attaining a Bachelor of Science majoring in Physics (Honours), Biochemistry and Nanotechlogy (Masters). His Masters investigated emerging methods utilising Fresnel coherent diffractive imaging for cellular imaging. He went on to complete a PhD on the development of Bragg coherent diffractive imaging & rapid ptychography for biological imaging, for which a CSIRO Manufacturing Flagship top-up scholarship was awarded.   In 2018 he began a postdoc at the University of Oxford (Trinity College) with the group of Prof. Felix Hofmann in the Department of Engineering Science. Here his attention turned to the study of strain and disorder within engineering materials. He is now a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Research Fellow under the 3i scheme at the Paul Scherrer Institut. 

Within the “Coherent X-ray Scattering” group Nick leads a series of his own projects spanning novel ptycho-spectroscopy, high-speed ptycho-tomography and the development of new scanning approaches within the field of coherent diffraction. These projects involve collaborations across multiple international institutes that share common links with his research interests. Looking to the future, much of his work will take full advantage of the SLS2.0 upgrade and seek to exploit source characteristics to realise new scientific achievements. In addition Nick fulfils an operational and user support role at the coherent small-angle X-ray scattering (cSAXS) beamline and is responsible for the dissemination of the groups research results via publication in peer-reviewed journals, conferences and symposia.

Nick’s interest in understanding processes at the meso-scale via the development of novel techniques for multi-modal coherent X-ray imaging research has given him a broad background in synchrotron physics, biochemistry and materials science. He is well versed in a variety of experimental geometries and has been a regular user of the Australian Synchrotron, the Advanced Photon Source, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and Diamond Light Source. Particular areas of interest include fly-scanning ptychography, spectro-ptychography, multi-reflection Bragg coherent diffractive imaging, Bragg ptychography, micro-beam Laue diffraction and X-ray fluorescence microscopy.

For a complete overview, see Google Scholar Author Page or ORCID 0000-0002-9742-7937.

High-speed free-run ptychography at the Australian Synchrotron, MWM Jones, GA van Riessen, NW Phillips, CE Schrank, GN Hinsley, N Afshar, J Reinhardt, MD de Jonge, CM Kewish, Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 29(2), 2022, DOI: 10.1107/S1600577521012856

Revealing nano-scale lattice distortions in implanted material with 3D Bragg ptychography, P Li, NW Phillips, S Leake, M Allain, F Hofmann, V Chamard, Nature Communications 12(1) 1-13, 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27224-5

Nanoscale Lattice Strains in Self-ion-implanted Tungsten, NW Phillips, H Yu, S Das, D Yang, K Mizohata, W Liu, R Xu, RJ Harder, F Hofmann, Acta Materialia. 195, 219-228, 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2020.05.033

Nanoscale imaging of the full strain tensor of specific dislocations extracted from a bulk sample, F Hofmann, NW Phillips, S Das, P Karamched, GM Hughes, JO Douglas, W Cha, W Liu, Physical Review Materials 4(1), 013801, 2020. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.013801

Simultaneous nanostructure and chemical imaging of intact whole nematodes, NW Phillips*, MWM Jones*, B Abbey, DJ Hare, GA van Riessen, DJ Vine, MD de Jonge, G McColl, Chemical Communications 55(8), 1052-1055, 2019. DOI: 10.1039/C8CC09664C

Micro-beam Laue alignment of multi-reflection Bragg coherent diffraction imaging measurements, F Hofmann, NW Phillips, RJ Harder, W Liu, JN Clark, IK Robinson, B Abbey, Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 24(5), 1048-1055, 2017. DOI: 10.1107/S1600577517009183

Continuous motion scan ptychography: characterization for increased speed in coherent x-ray imaging, J Deng, YSG Nashed, S Chen, NW Phillips, T Peterka, R Ross, S Vogt, C Jacobsen, DJ Vine, Optics Express 23(5), 5438-5451, 2015. DOI: 10.1364/OE.23.005438