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Postgraduate research project

Shaping light at the nanoscale with dielectric nanoantennas

Funding
Competition funded View fees and funding
Type of degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Entry requirements
2:1 honours degree View full entry requirements
Faculty graduate school
Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Closing date

About the project

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.

You will work at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) of the University of Southampton, in the Multimode Photonics Group led by Dr. Massimiliano Guasoni. You will acquire a broad range of advanced skills in nanofabrication as well as in theoretical, computational and experimental photonics. You will have access to some among the best equipped laboratories and nanofabrication research facilities in the world and to one of the most powerful supercomputers in UK.

You will directly interact on a daily basis with world-leading scientists at the ORC that are revolutionising the field of photonics, and you will have the opportunity to engage with several ORC industrial partners to increase the impact of your work. Furthermore, you will present your work both in leading academic journals and in oral presentations at the most renowned conferences all over the world, which will allow you to engage with and learn from the best researchers worldwide.

In the first year of your PhD, a structured training program will run along with the research project, which will allow a gradual transition from a taught degree to independent research.

For all these reasons, at the end of your PhD you will be ready to undertake a successful career as a top research scientist or business leader both in academia and in industry. Many former PhD graduates at the ORC have become academic or industry leading scientists.

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