Photonics and optoelectronics

Novel crystalline photonic devices offer exciting opportunities for creating efficient lasers and manipulating the properties of light. Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) is an extraordinary technique using light to create new materials.

This AI driven project would be suitable for a highly motivated candidate with a strong physics, materials or engineering related background and programming abilities. You will develop highly transferable skills in cleanroom sample fabrication and electronic/photonic device characterisation, laser materials processing, numerical simulations and machine learning with input from industry partners and working with leading academic experts.

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.

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

This ambitious project would be suitable for a bright, motivated candidate with a strong physics, materials or engineering related background. You will develop highly transferable skills in materials growth, advanced numerical modelling and fibre device characterisation whilst interacting with a wide range of experts leading in the field.

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.

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.

Two dimensional (2D)-materials are currently at the forefront of an exciting wave of scientific research. Compared to bulk materials, the high confinement in the 2D plane gives rise to unique optical and electronic properties that are advantageous for wide-ranging applications. However, from a photonics perspective, interacting with very thin layers can be inefficient, so that clever techniques must be applied to enhance the light-matter interaction and achieve high quality devices.

The mid-infrared, mid-IR, spectral region from 2-20 µm contains strong characteristic vibrational transitions of many important molecules and incorporates the atmospheric transmission window, which makes it crucial for applications in spectroscopy, materials processing, chemical and biomolecular sensing, neuroscience and medical diagnosis, security and environmental monitoring. However, this wavelength range is difficult to access directly using traditional laser materials and cavity implementations.

Hollow core fibres (HCFs) are an exciting, novel optical fibre technology where light is guided in an air-filled core. We are a world-leading group, which designs, characterises and fabricates state-of-the-art HCFs in our specialist facilities. Recently we reported a new world record low loss for this type of optical fibre, making HCFs contenders for a diverse range of interesting applications, including telecommunications, high power laser delivery and novel medical diagnostics.

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.

Laser modes with a doughnut-shaped beam profile can have many unique properties, including axially-symmetric polarisation (azimuthal or radial) or orbital angular momentum. As a result, these beams have found use in a diverse range of applications from ‘laser tweezers’ to laser processing of materials. In spite of their attractive properties, generating these beams with the required purity and at high power levels is very challenging.

Artificial intelligence is taking an ever-increasing presence in our daily life, most frequently related to visual data analysis such as face recognition. Can similar data processing algorithms be used to develop digital sensors that can detect organic substances to understand what role oceans take in global warming? Or monitor performance of an aircraft made of composite materials to reduce CO2 emissions?

Moore’s Law is currently being challenged with Nvidia CEO recently claiming it is dead. The scaling of transistors cannot continue due to physical limitations of silicon. 2D semiconductors offer the solution as they can be scaled to the molecular level and create excellent devices such as transistors, light emitters, and photodetectors.

This project will explore the unique capability of hollow core fibres (HFC) for kilowatt-class laser power transmission over kilometre-range distances, as recently demonstrated at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) [1]. The project will be mainly experimental but will also include some numerical modelling to support the work. The project work will take place across several research groups, covering state-of-the-art high-power laser facilities and world-leading hollow-core fibre fabrication, allowing the candidate to collaborate with experienced researchers in both fields to achieve the project objectives.

Silicon materials are synonymous with the microelectronics industry and, in particular, the processors used in everyday gadgets such as mobile phones, tablets, digital radios and televisions. More recently, due to its favourable optical properties, silicon has gained popularity in the field of optical information technologies. For example, using photons instead of electrons to transfer information. Bringing these two research areas together on an integrated platform will have huge technological consequences. However, there is a challenge as silicon photonic devices are typically fabricated via complex processing of expensive single crystal wafers, which renders multi-device integration difficult.

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 balance among elastic, electromagnetic and quantum forces changes dramatically at the nanometre scale. This project will explore the remarkable range of functional materials and devices that can be reconfigured with light and electromagnetic forces.

Multimode optical fibres have recently emerged as a promising breakthrough technology to boost the data transmission speed of the Internet network to unprecedented levels. In these fibres each spatial mode carries an independent data channel, and the interaction (cross-talk) among different modes is a problem to avoid. In this PhD project we want to reverse this point of view, looking for novel opportunities arising from the interaction among spatial modes. We will develop novel fibre lasers where this interaction is the keystone to achieve light generation over a wide spectral bandwidth, well beyond what is possible with current fibre laser technology.

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 will study the generation, propagation and interaction with matter of “Flying Toroids” - a new type of light pulses. It aims to advance optics and electromagnetism in the first radically new direction to emerge since Hertz, Marconi, Popov and Tesla originally developed technology for generating, detecting, and communicating with transverse electromagnetic waves.

This PhD project aims to open new frontiers in nanophotonics by designing and fabricating a new class of miniaturised optical sources. These sources will allow light emission in a broad frequency spectrum well beyond what is possible with current lasers. These sources will find application in several fields, including: medicine (as primary components of non-invasive breath analysers for cancer diagnosis) security (both for the detection of explosives and for the development of efficient anti-missile systems in civil aircrafts) the environment (for the monitoring of air pollution and green energy generation)

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 lasers have no moving parts or mirrors in the light generating source. It has emerged as the technology of choice for a wide range of industrial, medical and fundamental science applications.

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.

We are working in collaboration with a large EU consortium to create a reprogrammable neuromorphic photonic platform for a variety of applications from telecommunications to biosensing. We use the latest generation of phase change materials to create highly efficient in-memory photonic functionality with novel materials that allow the upscaling of the technology.

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.

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.

Time crystals are an eagerly sought phase of matter in which time-translation symmetry is broken. This project will explore nanophotonic structures that can be driven to a state possessing all key features of a time crystal. Such media offer exciting applications in a new generation of photonic devices.

A PhD position is available as part of a new centre of excellence called Light and Electrochemical Activated Processes for Chemical Industries (LEAP). The intention of LEAP is to coordinate the University of Southampton’s distinctive strengths in photonic materials and chemistry to tackle the challenge of decarbonising the chemical industry. The initiative brings together academics from chemistry, engineering, chemical engineering, and the Zepler Institute to improve our fundamental understanding of these complex processes and develop engineered solutions that can be applied at scale.

This project will develop new concepts of optical imaging, metrology and device functionality at the atomic (picometre) scale, leveraging recent advances in topology, the structuring of optical fields, metamaterials, and artificial intelligence.

Semiconductor photonics is fast becoming one of the most active areas of research, offering optoelectronic solutions for a wide range of applications not only in telecoms, but also in medicine, imaging, spectroscopy, and sensing. Within this field, a subdivision that is gaining increased momentum is semiconductor nonlinear photonics as the materials display a number of important nonlinear effects that can be used to generate and process signals at ultrafast speeds.

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.

In the last decade, nanophotonics has emerged as one of the most important research fields in optics. A tiny nano-object plays the role of a nanoantenna, when excited by a light source, it scatters light in the surrounding environment in one or more directions that depend on its geometry and material. An important issue that has not been fully understood yet is how to control the directionality and power of this scattered radiation. The scope of this PhD project is to advance our knowledge in nanophotonics by designing and fabricating nanoantennas that allow full control of the scattered field at the nanoscale. Single nanoantennas with arbitrary shape as well as arrays of coupled nanoantennas will be designed, fabricated and tested.

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.

Cryogenically cooled lasers are becoming a platform-architecture for future high-energy and high-average power systems, currently being developed in large-scale-facilities institutes across the world. The main ambition of the research underpinning this project is to develop small-scale 'turn-key' state-of-the-art solid-state lasers in the visible and UV wavelength bands. Targeting modes of operation that will lead to new laser parameters suitable for advanced-manufacturing applications.

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.

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, including the invention of the erbium doped fibre amplifier – a device that eliminated fibre loss as the fundamental limiting factor to signal transmission and which is installed in all modern optical communication networks. Optical communications remain by far the largest market for photonics and as such it represents one of the ORC’s primary research areas.

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.

Two dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are emerging as revolutionary components in nanophotonics. Recently, defects and strains in these vdW materials have attracted considerable interest as they can be engineered to realise quantum light emission, such as single-photon emitters, a crucial element for the development of quantum information technologies.

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.

Wearable technologies are revolutionising our daily lives, integrating everyday objects into our clothes, accessories and even our bodies. How can we power these without using rigid batteries that require overnight charging?  Using our body’s heat, thermoelectric generators can provide uninterrupted renewable energy for wearable devices.

Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) has recently emerged as a promising breakthrough technology to boost the data transmission speed of the Internet network to unprecedented levels.

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.