Phd in different subject?

Hi Chemistboy. Thanks for your response.

At the moment I am mostly looking at two particular fields. Nuclear physics and Photon/Laser physics. Other less related areas have also caught my eye though such as particle physics and astrophysics. I am most likely going to be taking a year out of academia after i graduate so if I were to pursue these further i would take it upon myself to get myself up to scratch. However I don't know whether this would be enough to convince an academic if i didn't have an official physics degree.

I will have proved I can do research and study effectively by getting a first in chemistry so I think I have a good case as this shows potential.

I'd say you are going to struggle to get a PhD in those areas with a chemistry degree. There may be some limited options in photonics and astro (the latter would really be a phd in spectroscopy applied to starlight). You should really be looking at areas around condensed matter/solid state or surfaces/nanoscience if you want to move in to physics from chemistry.

However i have emailed a couple of academic staff and was told i would be able to pursue a PhD in those areas but i would just have to take a couple of extra taught modules in first year.