About the project
Using light to detect gases with extraordinary sensitivity for environmental, industrial and healthcare applications, this PhD combines hollow-core optical fibres, advanced modelling and hands-on experiments. You will join a leading photonics research environment and shape the project around your interests and discoveries from day one.
How can we detect tiny traces of gas quickly, remotely and with exceptional sensitivity? Hollow-core optical fibres offer a powerful answer. Inside the gas-filled core, light and molecules can interact over long distances, creating new possibilities for environmental monitoring, industrial safety, healthcare and fundamental science.
In this PhD, you will investigate how gas composition, pressure and temperature alter light travelling through hollow-core fibres affecting optical loss, phase, dispersion, molecular absorption and nonlinear interactions. You will identify the strongest (or most sensitive) of those interactions and then turn them into innovative sensing technologies.
You will work across theory, simulation and experiment: building numerical models, designing optical systems, testing ideas in the laboratory and analysing real measurements. Supported by an interdisciplinary supervisory team, you will use your results to shape the direction of research according to your interests and the most promising avenues, which could include:
- turning gas-dependent optical loss and phase shifts into sensitive measurement signals
- exploring Kerr and Raman nonlinear interactions in gas mixtures
- measuring pressure- and temperature-dependent molecular absorption
- optimising fibre designs for emerging sensing applications
You will graduate with a distinctive combination of skills in computational modelling, optical measurement, fibre photonics and sensor design. The project combines fundamental physics with real-world applications and provides excellent preparation for careers in academia, photonics, and advanced technology. If you are curious, creative and keen to build and test new ideas, we would be delighted to hear from you.
The School of Optoelectronics (ORC) is committed to promoting equality, diversity inclusivity as demonstrated by our Athena SWAN award. We welcome all applicants regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age, and will give full consideration to applicants seeking flexible working patterns and those who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy, onsite childcare facilities, and offers a range of benefits to help ensure employees’ well-being and work-life balance. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and has been awarded the Platinum EcoAward.
