Current research degree projects
Explore our current postgraduate research degree and PhD opportunities.
Explore our current postgraduate research degree and PhD opportunities.
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 remains by far the largest market for photonics and as such it represents one of the ORC’s primary research areas.
Silicon materials are synonymous with the microelectronics industry and the processors in everyday gadgets such as mobile phones, tablets, digital radios and televisions. More recently, due to its favourable optical properties, silicon has gained popularity as an optical information technology, i.e., 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: silicon photonic devices are typically fabricated via complex processing of expensive single crystal wafers, which renders multi-device integration difficult. This project seeks to develop a simple, low-cost laser materials processing procedure to fabricate high-quality polysilicon photonic platforms that will ease issues associated with optoelectronic integration.
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.
This PhD project aims to open new frontiers in nanophotonics by designing and fabricating a new class of miniaturized 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: from medicine, as primary components of non-invasive breath analysers for cancer diagnosis; to security, both for the detection of explosives and for the development of efficient anti-missile systems in civil aircrafts; up to environment, for the monitoring of air pollution and green energy generation.Join us to pioneer the next generation miniaturized optical sources!
We are looking for a student to join an exciting new project in the field of bio-imaging. The project, recently awarded funding of ~£5M, aims to use laser-generated soft X-ray radiation for coherent imaging of nanoscale biological structures. The X-ray generation process, known as high-harmonic generation, is based on nonlinear optics using extremely high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses, the topic of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics. The imaging process uses computational algorithms to transform the scattered X-ray patterns into detailed images with resolution of 10nm or less, comparable with electron microscopes but with the huge advantages of X-rays in looking within biological structures like cells or neurons.
PhD Opportunity: Shaping the Future of Telecommunications with Hollow Core FibresAre you a graduate student in Physics/Engineering/Material Science or chemistry and want to be at the forefront of a technological revolution? If so, we invite you to join our collaborative project with Microsoft Azure Fiber at the University of Southampton.
Do you aspire to contribute to the forthcoming AI revolution? If so, join the world-leading Hollow Core Fibre group at the University of Southampton, in partnership with Microsoft Azure Fiber, and be part of a ground-breaking research project called “FASTNET”.
This exciting PhD project offers a unique opportunity to develop a high-efficiency, all-in-one in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) system for future crewed Mars missions. Your research will explore the cutting-edge potential of non-thermal plasmas for two crucial objectives:Purifying Martian water: Removing biological and chemical contaminants from water extracted from the Martian surface, enabling its safe use for astronauts.Generating essential resources: Dissociating Martian CO2 to produce oxygen and rocket fuel, eliminating the need to transport these vital supplies from Earth.Water, oxygen, and fuel are the lifeblood of any Mars mission. Due to the immense distance and travel time, transporting these necessities is simply not feasible. Enter ISRU, the key to a sustainable and independent future on Mars. This project will be built upon the University of Southampton's proven expertise in plasma technology. Our innovative plasma micro-bubble water (PMW) reactor can already remove 99.8% of chemical contaminants and achieve an 8-log reduction in biological contaminants.
In this project we will develop hollow-core optical fibres (HCFs) for mid-infrared laser delivery. HCFs offer a radically new solution for laser delivery as they guide light in a gas-filled core, instead of the glass in conventional optical fibres. HCF-based mid-infrared laser delivery systems could open exciting possibilities for diverse applications, including advanced medicine, gas sensing to protect the environment and new materials processing.
We are looking for a PhD student to join our interdisciplinary team of students, postdocs, and senior researchers developing systems for quantum technologies.Quantum Technologies present new challenges for manufacturing engineering. Southampton has been developing ultra-precision machining systems as a route to the scalable manufacture of atom and ion trap quantum systems. These components are the kernel of quantum sensing and quantum computing systems. The project will work with leaders in the field (academia and industry) to create vacuum systems with integrated photonics and electrical functionality. We will also develop the machines and processes to enable the growth of the quantum technology industry.