Engineering

Both Mid-IR and Raman molecular fingerprint spectroscopies have been shown to be powerful bio-diagnostic tools for specific biomarkers. Enhancing the sensitivity and improving the detection limit of current Mid-IR and Raman spectroscopic platforms are most important to exploit them for early diagnosis of disease biomarkers in point of care setting.

This is an exciting opportunity to work on a multidisciplinary project in soft robotics and fluid dynamics and control at one of the UK's leading departments for fluids research. You will focus on developing a soft robotic control surface with tunable stiffness properties that can adapt to varying inflow conditions.

Studying mechanical properties of large, complex structures such as a space launch vehicles or Earth’s crust relies on a large array of sophisticated and often, expensive sensors. Due to budget constraints, the number of sensing nodes deployed in such projects are limited to a few hundred which limits the scale and scope of these studies.

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) offer an efficient way to perform tasks in remote marine locations. They can be equipped with various sensors and imaging equipment allowing them to, for example, determine water quality and composition at different locations, inspect underwater structures such as pipelines or foundations, and survey unexplored areas of sea floor.

This PhD project will study the development and use of state-of-the-art hollow core optical fibres for both telecom and datacom applications. The research will include work concerned with 5G back-haul and datacentres as well as long-haul transmission and will look to exploit the many distinctive and enabling characteristics of these new fibres

Solar power is a major component of the drive towards a ''CO2-free power'' generation. Today, photovoltaics are probably the most important technology in this field. ''Solar thermal'' power has comparatively high costs due to the complexity of the installations.

A fully funded industrial studentship is available for research in the area of decentralised and distributed active noise and vibration control. Although active noise and vibration control is now a relatively mature technology, with commercial systems in headphones, cars and aircrafts, it is not straightforward to apply to large-scale applications with widely distributed control sources and error sensors.

Advances in lasers now allow the laser-based processing of almost any material. Innovation in this field is therefore becoming heavily focussed on making existing processing techniques more precise and efficient.

Our team specialises in the development and manufacturing of novel optoelectronic devices for applications in quantum technology, integrated optical sensors and laser optics.

This project focuses on anchoring solutions for floating offshore wind turbines and contribute to make renewable energy more competitive and sustainable.

This PhD project aims to develop a high-performance version of ALPS (ALl-printed Propulsion System to maintain attitude of VLEO (Very Low Earth Orbit).

Fibre lasers that are increasingly becoming the light source of choice for a wide range of industrial and scientific applications, have spurred the development of new types of rare-earth (i.e., Yb, Er, Tm, and Ho) doped fibres, each with a unique set of properties to match with the specific applications. Since the fibre design and material properties of the fibre core have become critical to the performance of the fibre laser, a more powerful fibre fabrication process is required than the current industry standard process, which is MCVD (Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition) - solution doping technique.

This PhD project aims to develop the reduced state-to-state (StS) model for high-fidelity hypersonic aerothermodynamic simulations using machine learning methods.

Water shortage is a serious and increasing problem in many countries. Developing technology to reduce water shortage is of prime importance. We are developing water retention solutions using an approach inspired by Roman technology.

Electronic textiles, or e-textiles, refers to the addition of electronics, sensors, actuators, energy harvesters and energy storage within fabric materials. Textiles are the most common material humans come into physical contact with, so e-textiles provide a ubiquitous platform for a new class of wearable technology where the electronics are hidden and undetectable within otherwise standard items of clothing.

Electronic textiles, or e-textiles, refers to the addition of electronics, sensors, actuators, energy harvesters and energy storage within fabric materials. Textiles are the most common material humans come into physical contact with, so e-textiles provide a ubiquitous platform for a new class of wearable technology where the electronics are hidden and undetectable within otherwise standard items of clothing.

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD studentship (UK fees and International) to work on triboelectric energy harvesting within garments.  

This PhD offers you the opportunity to tackle the urgent real-world challenge of developing efficient deep water anchoring systems for offshore floating renewable energy infrastructure. You will also have the opportunity to work as part of a vibrant research group focussed on a range of offshore engineering challenges and engage with a range of industry partners.

This PhD project explores the electrical, thermal and economic modelling of a range of electrical energy storage types. For example, lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, flow cells and fuel cells. We also investigate the potential to operate and manage direct parallel hybrids of combinations of these energy storage types.

We are looking for a talented and motivated PhD student to develop flight-control methods to increase manoeuvrability of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

This project focuses on developing novel hydrogen combustion engine concepts for zero-emission power and propulsion. 

Join our Aerodynamics and flight mechanics research group and guide your career through a diverse set of novel, open-ended problems with multidisciplinary teams.

Generation of femtosecond and attosecond X-ray pulses using intense laser pulses has transformed ultrafast science. The ability to produce coherent ultrafast X-ray pulses has applications in many areas, from the investigation of ultrafast molecular dynamics to biomedical imaging.

Recent years have seen remarkable progress in the development of hollow core fibres (HCFs). Not only can HCFs transmit extreme laser power levels beyond the fundamental damage threshold of glass, but they can also achieve even lower propagation loss than traditional glass fibres, as demonstrated by researchers at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC). This progress has led to the demonstration of record kilowatt laser power transmission over a kilometre-range HCF, well beyond the capability of standard glass fibres.

You will investigate a route to high-power visible sources through cladding pumping of RE-doped silica fibres using GaN-LDs. You will be involved in the fabrication of RE (such as Pr3+, Dy3+ and Tb3+) - doped fibres in modified silica glass hosts offering low phonon energy while maintaining the other characteristics of silica fibres. Additionally, you will perform a detailed spectroscopic characterisation of the fabricated fibres and will be involved in the development of visible fibres. You will have access to the the state-of-the-art fibre fabrication facilities and laboratories at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) in the Zepler Institute.

Would you like to help the UK eliminate leakage-related water loss? We’re offering a 3.5-year fully funded PhD to investigate the dynamics of hydrants to enhance acoustic-based water leak detection.

The disruption of microorganisms, especially in lysing of cell membranes, immersed in fluids has been the object of increasing attention among engineers and scientists.

In this project, you will develop methods for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to navigate precisely without external support for indefinite periods of time using sensor information and map matching techniques.

Consider the development of planar integrated photonic devices and systems for microwave/RF signal processing in the optical domain. Undertake this PhD on the combination of directional couplers, Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZI) and Bragg gratings for use in microwave photonic systems.

In this PhD project, you’ll develop a new theoretical and computational method for measuring difficult material properties, such as a shock wave, a shear band, or a crack tip. These properties are critical in engineering problems such as car crashes, manufacturing processes, or geotechnical slope stability. Once the material behaviour is understood, we can conduct accurate simulations, such as finite element simulations, to develop a new generation of engineering design and prototyping.

This project will help you achieve a unique set of skills and expertise to become a world’s leading specialist in the lubrication of efficient technologies.

Two-micron fibre laser technology has the potential to yield a wealth of new applications in areas such as industrial laser processing, medicine, defence and optical communications. Moreover, significant power scaling advantages can be gained by moving from traditional ytterbium-doped fibre lasers operating in the one-micron band to the two-micron band. The main focus of this project will be to investigate novel approaches for scaling output power from thulium doped fibre lasers operating in the two-micron wavelength band in both continuous-wave and pulsed regimes.

This PhD project provides a unique opportunity to work on aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of landing gears at the Airbus Noise Technology Centre (ANTC), part of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.

This project is tackling major technological roadblocks associated with silicon photonics and aims to demonstrate the monolithic integration of III/V lasers with CMOS photonic waveguiding components. This breakthrough will enable the development of innovative photonic circuits to serve the requirements of a wide range of low cost optical interconnects and sensing technologies.  

The project aims to develop and investigate learning-based and optimisation-based control strategies (for example, model predictive control, AI, adaptive dynamic programming) and their applications to the marine operations.

This PhD project explores machine learning techniques for affective computing that automates the process of recognising, interpreting and simulating human affects such as facial emotion generation. The current affective computing domain suffers from remarkable expenses and ambiguities on manual annotations.

Modern society depends massively on the generation, processing and transmission of vast amounts of data. It is predicted that by 2025, 175 zettabytes (175 trillion gigabytes) of data will be generated around the globe. Processing such huge amounts of data demands ever increasing computational power, memory and communication bandwidth. These demands cannot be sustainably met by conventional digital electronic technologies. Indeed, CMOS-based von Neumann architectures are now approaching a widely accepted ‘efficiency-wall’, a fundamental limit on the number of operations per unit energy, while the number of operations required continues to grow at unprecedented rates.

The goal of this project is to create devices for the quantum internet. We are seeking excellent PhD candidates to use state-of-the-art fabrication facilities to develop core components for interfacing quantum computers and quantum networks.

The International Maritime Organisation aims to decarbonise the shipping industry, with ambitious targets of 40% reduction in CO2 emission by 2030 (based on 2008 levels), moving to a 70% reduction by 2050. To achieve these ambitions requires energy savings across all areas of the sector and a move towards non-carbon-based energy. Moving towards a cleaner ‘hydrogen economy’ offers great promise, although it is not without its challenges.

Acute hypoxic respiratory failure is a significant problem in the intensive care unit setting. Supplemental oxygen is essential for treatment of acute hypoxic respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), were impaired gas exchange results in severe hypoxaemia. While oxygen is a ubiquitous adjunct to mechanical ventilation, it is not without harm, and recent studies suggest adverse outcomes with overzealous use of oxygen.

This project relates to the development and applications of novel nonlinear waveguides. This is an opportunity to carry out a PhD at the Communications Systems Lab of the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC). The group has been at the forefront of optical fibre communications since the very earliest days of the field providing several critical contributions.

This research project aims to develop high-power nonlinear optical waveguides as sources of photons for use in quantum imaging, quantum secured Telecomms, and quantum computing. We specialise in the development and manufacturing of novel optoelectronic devices for applications in quantum technology, integrated optical sensors and laser optics.

Fibre optics has transformed telecommunications and profoundly impacted industrial manufacturing, medical endoscopy and structural sensing. In many applications however, solid fibres are operating close to fundamental physical limits imposed by the glass forming their core. A transformative new technology is emerging where light is guided in air or vacuum, in a Hollow Core Fibre (HCF). HCFs have the potential to become the best optical waveguide ever produced and to bring positive impacts in many application fields.

Hollow-core optical fibres (HCFs) offer a radically new solution for laser delivery as they guide light in a gas-filled core, as opposed to glass in conventional optical fibres. HCF-based mid-infrared laser delivery systems could open exciting possibilities for diverse and valuable applications, including surgical treatment, gas sensing, and materials processing.

Although our oceans contain 99% of the living space on the planet, less than 10% of this space has been explored. Ocean monitoring is essential to human survival - from understanding the long-term impacts of climate change to ensuring ocean resources are developed sustainably.

Would you like to help the UK eliminate leakage-related water loss? Explore the use of optical fibre sensing for the acoustic detection of leaks in a 3.5 year, fully-funded PhD.

At the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), we are leading the world in developing a new generation of optical fibres that promise a revolution in applications ranging from optical communications to ultraprecise optical sensors. Our hollow-core optical fibres harness some truly intriguing physics to guide light in an air-filled core region over tens of kilometres distance and are now rivalling and outperforming standard optical fibres in many aspects. However, their transformative potential in many areas remain largely unexplored.

If you’re interested in ultrafast lasers/nonlinear optics or ultrahigh precision measurements, consider a PhD in the area of comb technology using a state-of-the-art comb laser system. Using recent developments in laser and frequency conversion it has become possible to produce laser sources providing a comb of spectral lines with spectral frequencies accurate to parts in a thousand, million, million. Such combs have revolutionised the accuracy with which time, frequency and distance can be measured and are opening a host of new device and application opportunities.

This project will investigate a new approach for generating very high output power from fibre lasers in the visible and ultraviolet wavelength regime with the ambition of demonstrating levels of performance in terms of power, efficiency and wavelength flexibility that go well beyond the capabilities of the current state-of-the-art. The work is motivated mainly by the growing demands of laser-based manufacturing, and particularly additive manufacturing (3D printing), for high power laser sources in the visible band due to significantly greater absorption in important metals, such as copper.

Undertake a PhD on distributed Raman amplification, a topic at the intersection between optical telecommunications, optical amplification, and optical nonlinearity. Develop techniques for high accuracy link power profile symmetrisation using multi-pump, high order distributed Raman amplification.

Photonic integration is becoming a key solution for next-generation information technologies. Compared with the existing technologies in the near-infrared wavelength band, UV/blue light integration is emerging as an attractive subdivision in integrated photonics. With the advantages of a smaller footprint and a larger bandwidth, UV/blue integrated systems hold the promise in vast applications. This includes, but is not limit to, visible light communications, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) systems, inter-satellite communications, light detection and ranging (Lidar), high-density data storage, quantum photonic chips, chemical/biological photonic chips, and non-Von Neumann photonics.

Our aim is to develop the next generation of integrated photonics materials that will offer low optical losses over various wavelength windows spanning from the ultraviolet (UV ~400nm) to the visible (VIS~900nm) regime. These materials will enable the realisation of photonic integrated circuits that will underpin emerging industrial applications in quantum photonics, metrology, spectroscopy, sensing, healthcare, and display technologies.

We are looking for a PhD student to work on the design and numerical simulation of the next generation of high-power fibre lasers. This project is part of a major new initiative funded by the UK Research Council at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton.

About 7 terawatt hours per year could be generated in the UK from low temperature waste heat and steam (80° to 15° Celsius), which accounts for 40% of all waste heat production. This energy resource is mostly unused, since there is no cost-effective heat engine for this temperature range. Existing technology, mostly the Organic Rankine Cycle systems, are complex and they use refrigerants as working fluids which can have greenhouse warming potential.

2D solid lubricants exhibit unique tribological properties with negligible friction state, so-called superlubricity. However, they are difficult to produce, and their damage during sliding is often catastrophic. This results in rupture and immediate wear. This project will explore the unique capability of the coating based on transition metal dichalcogenides doped with nitrogen to produce 2D solid lubricant in situ during sliding. The coating must be as hard as steel and provide solid lubrication in various environments.

Ultra-precision machining of photonic components has revolutionised the production of optics, such as freeform lenses and mirrors. Modern ultra-precision stages and diamond tools allow bulk optics to be formed with nanometre surface roughness and tolerances.

Here in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), at the University of Southampton, radically different, new generation optical fibres are being designed and manufactured. The unique properties of these hollow core optical fibres mean they surpass the traditional glass core fibres used today in virtually every aspect. However, their performance can be further improved or tailored to a specific application via their design. The core of the project lies in research work with such tailored hollow core fibres.

To help reduce the carbon emission of shipping, Silverstream Technologies have developed an air lubrication system shown to reduce fuel consumption by 5-8%. The system releases a carpet of bubbles along a ship’s hull, providing a separation between the hull and the water, reducing the frictional drag. The quality of the carpet determines the potential fuel savings.

When a gas surrounded by a liquid film flows out of a coaxial nozzle, the stream can spontaneously deform into liquid shells: bubbles of air trapped in a layer of liquid. Under the right circumstances, these liquid shells are highly reproducible and can form at a very high rate, up to thousands of liquid shells per second. This makes them highly desirable for industrial applications where hollow spherical objects need to be produced. Example application areas are encapsulation for pharmaceuticals, 3D printing of foam structures, shells for inertial confinement fusion, and even novel shower systems.

Would you like to help the UK eliminate leakage-related water loss? We’re offering a 3.5-year fully funded PhD position to support water network prognostics through monitoring pipeline leak progression.

Hollow-core optical fibres guide light in a central hole inside a silica microstructure. These newly developed fibres exceed traditional solid fibres used in the past 40 years in every metric: lower attenuation, nonlinearity, latency, and better high-power laser transmission. However, the central hole where light is transmitted is typically filled with air and for several applications even air limits the fibre performance.

Fibre lasers have seen a rapid development in output power and performance over the past three decades and have revolutionised the application space for photonics. However the development of fibre lasers with wavelength-flexible single-frequency sources is lagging other areas of fibre lasers research.

Porous materials perform a range of functions including lightweight load bearing, impact protection, energy absorption and thermal or acoustic insulation. They have a range of applications such as aerospace and transport structures, protective panelling, cargo packaging, and insulation.

The aim of this studentship is to interweave the multi-disciplinary strands of X-ray physics, ptychographic image analysis and neuroscience to observe neuronal structures at resolutions of 50nm and below. This will allow us to study fundamental functions and uncover pathological mechanisms and early morphological changes, including those that can cause neurodegenerative diseases.  

A new area of imaging has opened up, using coherent light to illuminate objects, and computer algorithms to analyse the scattered light and generate images. Developments in ultrafast lasers have made sources of coherent soft X-rays possible in the lab, rather than relying on large-scale installations like synchrotrons. The combination of these two techniques has been successful in producing a new generation of X-ray microscopes, and at Southampton we have been at the forefront of this development. In particular, we have chosen areas of biology where imaging below the 100nm length scale can provide new information about processes occurring within cells.